Patrícia Turmina, CEO of Royal Trudel, is among the most brilliant and successful young people in their fields
Photo: Archive personal
The Business Administration alumna, from PUCRS’s Business School, Patrícia Turmina, 28, won the competitive Forbes Under 30 award (2022), an acknowledgement of the most influential and successful young people in their respective fields. Patrícia, who graduated in 2016, is one of the founders and the CEO of Royal Trudel.
Soon after graduating, Patrícia founded, along with her brother Luis Turmina, Production Engineer graduated from PUCRS’s School of Technology, Royal Trudel, the first franchise network in the food segment specialized in Trdelník, a kind of dessert originally from Romania. They learned about the dessert through o photograph, when their parents returned from a trip to Eastern Europe.
Patrícia explains that she comes from a family of real entrepreneurs. Her parents started from scratch, in a small town and in unfavorable socioeconomic conditions.
“They worked hard so my brother and I could have it easier like we did. Because of this, it was natural that we saw entrepreneurship as a way of feeling accomplished, and the human being as the main character in its own story,” she shares.
Even without knowing they would become associates, the siblings ended up developing complementary skills through their studies. “Our biggest example was always at home, but obviously the academic context, our professors and colleagues also played an important part in our journey and decisions,” she states.
Even having never tasted or seen a Trdelník, the sibling’s pioneering and their wish to start their business led them to producing the dessert in Brazil and, now, they celebrate the success of the franchise, which has over 50 shops across the country and closed 2022 with over R$ 30 million in earnings. Currently, the Royal Trudel network operates in 14 states, from the South to the Northeast of Brazil.
Patrícia particularly remembers that, in one of her classes of her undergraduate course, she worked on consulting project for small companies: “We went on several field trips, getting to know micro entrepreneurs, making diagnoses and action plans. I remember that naively, at the time, I was surprised at the lack of management and strategic vision of small business people. Later on, when Royal Strudel began, I found myself swamped with operational tasks, sleeping very little, working a lot, not able to handle it all. Everything made sense! I didn’t even have the time to eat, let alone to think strategically. I remembered that project and how, in theory, everything looks so easy. But this contact with real and practical life is the major difference when you have corporate training and are able to anticipate real challenges.”
Photo: Archive personal
Patrícia Turmina is an example of successful entrepreneurship, now awarded with this important prize. “Winning the Forbes Under 30 award is extremely rewarding, because it marks the acknowledgement of all the hard work alongside my brother. I hope to inspire other entrepreneurs to follow their dreams and achieve sucess,” says the young business owner.
Among the memories from her time at the institution, she highlights the fact that PUCRS is a university which challenges and instigates its students to grow in a comprehensive manner while opening up a range of knowledge.
“During my Business Administration course, I was able to discover and enhance my main skills, emphasizing the areas of greater interest.”.
The coordinator of the Business Administration course, professor Ionara Rech, highlights the honor that is seeing PUCRS alumni being successful in the industry:
“Keeping up with Patrícia and her business’s journey, we can clearly see skills of entrepreneurship, leadership and innovation which we developed, in addition to a vision for the future and, obviously, a lot of hard work which must have been put into this up until this important acknowledgement. We are delighted we got to contribute to this journey because it represents the skills we seek to develop in our students. Congratulations and success in this journey. We celebrate with her, definitely,” she highlights.
