Born in the northeastern state of Maranhão, where one in ten people live in extreme poverty, Ilson Mateus began working at age of 12 as an apprentice miner and then mechanic to support his family.

By age of 17, he was making cachaça, a Brazilian alcoholic drink made from sugar cane, before becoming a gold digger.
In 1984, while working in the open-cast mines of Serra Pelada, Ilson Mateus heard about Balsas, a town where soya cultivation was developing strongly. He seized the opportunity to open a small 50m2 grocery shop there with his savings, and that was beginning of Grupo Mateus.

In the beginning, Ilson Mateus catered for local demand and sold a variety of food products.

Aware of the growth potential of his business, he quickly decided to add a product shipping service for surrounding towns. This enabled him to rapidly expand his business in the regions, giving him a national presence. His grocery shop is transformed into a medium-sized supermarket, known as Mateus Supermercados.  In order to continue expanding, the entrepreneur decided to open new shops in the state of Maranhão, such as Imperatriz, Santa Inês and São Luiz. In 2007, Grupo Mateus opened the «Bumba Meu Pão» bread industry, and later implemented cash-and-carry, a self-service system, in Mix Mateus shops. From 2016, Ilson Mateus improved the Group’s structure and diversified into e-commerce. He therefore created a segment within Grupo Mateus called Eletro Mateus, offering a range of domestic electrical appliances. In 2019, the group posted sales of $1.9 bn. In 2020, against all expectations, at a time when the country was in throes of an economic recession and during covid pandemic, the group raised $891M and successfully floated on Sao Paulo stock exchange. 

Grupo Mateus completes the largest IPO of the year in Brazil. 

This company, which previously only owned a 50m² grocery shop in interior of Maranhão, has reached the milestone of its initial public offering, obtaining financing of $1 bn. With this sum, Ilson Mateus was able to increase its number of shops. It also diversified its business model through partnerships such as the one with Banco Bradesco, with which it launched MateusCard. 
In 2021, 45 shops will be opened. By the end of year, 9 new shops will have been added, including 4 in electronics sector, 3 in retail and 2 in cash and carry segment.
Now fourth largest food retailer in Brazil, Grupo Mateus operates over 200 shops in north and north-east country.
To continue its rise on Brazilian stock exchange, Ilson believes that group needs to raise their corporate governance standards. According to Ilson Mateus, people and innovation are the pillars of his group’s development. It provides training courses such as Unimateus, which enables all employees to familiarise themselves with the Group’s areas of expertise. It also uses personalised technological solutions to offer customers new shopping experiences, such as Pulse and Mateus Mais, applications developed by the Group.

In 2022, Ilson stepped down as CEO of his company.

In August, the businessman handed over his position as CEO to his right-hand man Jesuíno Martins, Vice-President of Operations, who had been with the company for 25 years.
Today, Mateus name is still very much present within the group: Ilson is Chairman of the Board of Directors and his son, Ilson Mateus Rodrigues Jr. is a member of the Board of Directors. Ilson still owns 41% of the company’s shares His ex-wife Maria Barros Pinheiro also holds 15% shares in the group.