In January 1918, the bankrupt estate of a Sao Paulo bank was bought by the Portuguese entrepreneur Antonio Pereira Ignacio. Among the properties acquired, there was Fábrica de Tecidos Votorantim, which was the largest textile factory in the interior of São Paulo.

It was in the looms of this factory, in the cotton bales and by the tireless hands of workers and workers that the company’s history began. In 1918, Brazil was a country to be built, only three decades ago it had abolished slavery and proclaimed the Republic, and longed for a future that would place it among the important nations of the world. It took courage to risk business, and this was a mark of Antonio Pereira Ignacio.