Agfa invests US$ 20 million in Brazil
Valor Econômico - 06/30/2008
Convincing the headquarters of any multinational to invest money in Brazil is still a hard task. Besides having a growing operation market, the subsidiary company that requests the investments has to show heafty figures and prove to be competitive in the shop floor, a script the Belgian Agfa knows very well. Giant in the production of printing plates for the printing and medical sectors, the company has just got green light from the headquarters to invest US$ 20 million in its only printing plate plant in Latin America, located in Suzano (SP). Just to have an idea of the funds' amount, the multinational invested, in 2005, US$ 3 million in this unit. Fabrizio Valentini, president of Agfa for Latin America and Brazil, explained to Valor that the investment of US$ 20 million will be done in the second halves of 2008 and 2009. And the result will be the duplication of the installed capacity. "We will go from 10 million square meters of plates a year to 20 million", he affirms. In Latin America, which includes Mexico, the company has another operation in Argentina, which produces films. The officer does not hide the green light from the headquarters resulted from the good moment of the Brazilian subsidiary has been living, since it had doubled its income in the country in the last five years. In 2007, Agfa in Brazil had an income of US$ 130 million, compared to the US$ 65 million registered in 2002. And the increase of such income also increased the relevance of Latin America in the international income of Agfa, which is close to 3.3 billion Euros. If in 2000, the region represented 4%, today its share is 9%. And even if Mexico were excluded, since it only became part of the region last year, Latin America would be responsible for 7% of its international sales. "Brazil represents 40% of the Latin American businesses", he said.