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In Santa Catarina, the Mendes brothers left Eisenbahn, the brewery they created, to buy a small nearly bankrupt dairy and found the Vermont brand: today they earn around R$ 20 million with fine cheeses like Morro Azul, voted the best cheese in Latin America.
There are entrepreneurs who succeed in anything they touch. This is the case of the Mendes brothers from Santa Catarina, who first created one of the most famous craft beers in Brazil and then decided to become cheesemakers. Juliano and Bruno Mendes left Eisenbahn, the brewery they founded, and went on to buy a small dairy that was on the brink of bankruptcy. From this turnaround, the Vermont brand was born, whose Morro Azul cheese was eventually voted the best cheese in Latin America.
The story was told by InfoMoney, which showed how the brothers transformed an almost idle factory into an award-winning business. When they bought the dairy in 2013, it was only making about R$ 400,000 a year; today the company projects to reach R$ 20 million. From brewers to cheese champions, the Mendes proved that business acumen does not choose a field.
From Eisenbahn beer to cheese
In 2002, when almost no one was talking about craft beer in Brazil, Juliano and Bruno Mendes created Eisenbahn in Santa Catarina and helped open this market in the country.
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The brand was so successful that it was eventually bought by the Heineken group, and the brothers embarked on a new challenge. The next passion was cheese.
Instead of resting, they went to study in depth: they attended the University of Vermont in the United States, taking a course in artisanal cheeses between 2011 and 2013. It was from there that the name of the future brand, Vermont, came.
A nearly bankrupt dairy bought in 2013
The opportunity appeared in the form of a struggling factory. The Ziehlsdorf family wanted to sell Laticínios Pomerode, a small factory that basically made a single product, a parmesan cream from a 1948 recipe.
The business operated only one period per week and showed signs that it wouldn’t survive much longer. It was this faltering dairy that the Mendes brothers bought in 2013.
Where others saw a dead business, they saw raw material for a dream. The bet was to transform milk into fine and award-winning cheese.
The Vermont brand and the Morro Azul cheese
Vermont was born, a brand of fine cheeses named in honor of the American university where the Mendes studied.
The star of the house became Morro Azul, a creamy blue cheese that mixes local tradition with techniques learned abroad. Vermont bet on quality and boldness, avoiding the common shelf cheese.
Each piece of Morro Azul is the result of research, maturation, and care. It was cheese made to compete with the best in the world, not just to sell over the counter.
Elected the best cheese in Latin America
Recognition came on the toughest stage in the sector. Morro Azul was elected the best cheese in Latin America at the World Cheese Awards, the world’s leading cheese competition, held in Norway in 2023.
Winning the title of best cheese in Latin America, in a competition with thousands of competitors from around the world, put the small Vermont on the international map. And the awards didn’t stop.
Morro Azul continued to accumulate medals and, in 2026, was mentioned among the best cheeses on the planet by an American specialized magazine. For a cheese born in an almost bankrupt dairy, becoming the best cheese in Latin America is quite a turnaround.
From R$ 400 thousand to R$ 20 million
The numbers show the size of the leap. When the Mendes brothers took over the dairy in 2013, it was earning about R$ 400 thousand a year, the value of a backyard factory.
Over the years, they have invested around R$ 10 million in the business, and the company today projects to earn R$ 20 million in 2025. It’s worth noting: the R$ 20 million is the operation’s target for the year, and the R$ 400 thousand was the revenue of the old factory, not the price paid for it.
Even with the caveat, the evolution is impressive. Multiplying the size of a dairy on the brink of death by dozens is the result of a lot of work and a sure bet.
The new store in Blumenau and the bet on tourism
The most recent step targets the direct consumer. The brothers opened Vermont’s first own store on one of the most touristic streets of Blumenau, in Santa Catarina, according to Gazeta do Povo.
The idea is to combine the award-winning cheese with the strong tourism of the region, turning Morro Azul into an attraction of its own. Blumenau, land of Oktoberfest and the brewing past of the Mendes, now becomes the showcase of the new cheese business.
It’s the cycle coming full circle: from beer to cheese, always betting on local culture. The store is another chapter of the Vermont brand towards the public.
What the story of the Mendes brothers shows
The biggest lesson is about reinvention with courage. The Mendes brothers proved that it’s possible to abandon a successful business, start from scratch in another field, and reach the top, as they did by transforming a failed dairy into the owner of the best cheese in Latin America.
Of course, it’s worth keeping your feet on the ground. The R$ 20 million level is a projection, the path took more than a decade and required about R$ 10 million in investment, so it was neither luck nor instant success.
Even so, leaving beer in Santa Catarina and becoming a world reference in cheese is the kind of turnaround that few entrepreneurs achieve. From Eisenbahn to Morro Azul, the Mendes showed that business talent, study, and boldness open doors in any market.
And that, sometimes, the best cheese on the continent is born where you least expect it. And you, did you know the story behind Morro Azul, from Vermont? Tell us in the comments if you’ve ever tasted an award-winning Brazilian cheese.
