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Terra report published on 09/01/2023 shows Athena Rodrigues, former tax lawyer from Belo Horizonte, who opened Dona Zelda in 2020, with R$ 2,000, to sell cheese bread in São Paulo, operate wholesale, own delivery, store in the Copan Building and currently bill R$ 300,000 per year.
Cheese bread became the center of Athena Rodrigues’ business, a native of Belo Horizonte who left her career as a CLT lawyer to start a business in São Paulo. In 2020, alongside her husband Lucas da Silva, she created Dona Zelda with an initial investment of R$ 2,000.
According to a Terra report, published on September 1, 2023, Athena was 34 years old, had nearly ten years in law, and worked in the tax area before changing course. The focus of the story is on the business model created around a Minas Gerais product, with operations in wholesale, own delivery, and physical store in the center of São Paulo.
Dona Zelda was born in 2020 with an initial investment of R$ 2,000
The Dona Zelda brand was created in 2020, during the pandemic, when Athena was already living in São Paulo. The idea was to bet on a product strongly linked to the emotional memory of Minas Gerais, but with an operation designed for the São Paulo market.
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The initial investment reported by the entrepreneur was R$ 2,000. This data draws attention because it shows a lean entry into the business, but should not be read as a ready-made formula: growth came later with a network of clients, sales channels, and product positioning.
Brand name honors the family
The name Dona Zelda has a family origin. Athena told Terra that her grandmother, named Zilda, was the one who taught her how to make cheese bread. Her grandfather, who has passed away, called his wife Zelda, and the name ended up being a tribute to both.
This detail helps give identity to the brand without turning the business into just an emotional memory. The tribute works as an origin narrative, but growth depended on product, service, commercial channels, and sales consistency.
Business operates in three sales fronts
Dona Zelda was not limited to direct sales at the counter. According to Athena, the business operates on three fronts: wholesale for cafes and emporiums, its own delivery of frozen cheese bread to bake at home, and a physical store in the Copan Building, in downtown São Paulo.
This division is important because it reduces dependence on a single channel. Wholesale increases recurrence, delivery brings the product into homes, and the physical store strengthens the brand experience.
Store in Copan became a point of contact with the public
The presence in the Copan Building places Dona Zelda in a symbolic address of São Paulo. The report states that the space attracts both locals and people from Minas Gerais interested in the brand’s cheese bread.
In the store, besides cheese bread, there are stuffed options prepared on the spot, frozen products to take home, cake, fried cookies, and raindrop cakes. The menu reinforces a proposal of affectionate Minas Gerais cuisine, but organized as a commercial operation.
Minas Gerais product found an audience in São Paulo
Athena states that São Paulo has a community of people passionate about Minas Gerais. According to her, many local customers report trips, parties, and experiences in Minas Gerais cities, which helps create a connection with the brand’s proposal.
This cultural bridge is part of the business’s differential. Dona Zelda does not just sell cheese bread; it sells a reference to Minas Gerais adapted to the daily life of those who circulate through downtown São Paulo.
Customer network grew by recommendation
In the beginning, according to Athena, friends bought the product and gave it to others as a gift. Then, these new customers also started recommending it to other consumers, forming a network of buyers in different neighborhoods of the São Paulo capital.
This growth by recommendation is valuable in food businesses because trust and experience count a lot. When the customer takes the product to someone else, they also bring an informal validation of the brand.
Revenue reached R$ 300,000 per year
The report informs that Dona Zelda reached an annual revenue of R$ 300,000, equivalent to about R$ 25,000 per month. The data shows the evolution of a business that started small and began operating with different sales channels.
This revenue should be read as income, not as profit. The source does not detail production costs, rent, staff, raw materials, logistics, or margin. Therefore, the number shows commercial scale, but does not allow us to conclude how much net remains for the company.
Legal career gave way to brand management
Athena came from a family of lawyers and worked in the field for almost ten years. In the interview, she stated that she did not regret studying law, but missed creativity and greater involvement with the work.
In the new phase, the central skill became another: building a brand, selling, organizing channels, serving customers, and planning expansion. The career change appears less as an emotional rupture and more as a transition to a personal business with a clear identity.
Wholesale is a bet to expand the brand
Athena stated that she wants to expand the wholesale part. Since the cheese bread is also sold frozen, the entrepreneur sees the possibility of reaching more places, including other states and supermarkets.
At the same time, she recognizes an important barrier: logistics. The source informs that the company was still studying how to get the product to other states at a competitive price. This caution is relevant because the expansion of frozen food depends on transportation, final price, and operational capacity.
Cheese bread became a business, not just a homemade recipe
The story of Dona Zelda shows that a traditional recipe can become a company when it gains a sales channel, brand, service, packaging, recurrence, and distribution strategy. Cheese bread is the central product, but the business is sustained by the way it reaches the customer.
This is the point that differentiates a good recipe from a commercial operation. A good product opens doors, but recurring revenue requires organization, logistics, relationships, and the ability to serve different audiences.
What this business reveals about comfort food
A trajectory of Athena Rodrigues shows how a regional product can gain value in another market when it combines origin, perceived quality, and well-defined channels. Dona Zelda took the Minas Gerais cheese bread to São Paulo with a store, delivery, and wholesale, creating an operation that grosses R$ 300,000 per year.
The question that remains is whether more traditional Brazilian recipes can become strong businesses outside their states of origin. Do you believe that comfort food, when well-positioned, can compete with cafes, emporiums, and larger brands? Leave your opinion in the comments.
