Caloi resumes profiting and starts expansion
Valor Econômico
Net profiting after nearly 20 years operating in the red, Caloi outlined ambitious plans for the coming years. Besides starting a new cycle of investments with R$ 30 million (US$ 17.7 million) in three years and expansion of the manufacturing park, the largest Brazilian bicycle maker intends to internationalize its businesses and consolidate as a supplier in strategic markets such as Europe. The proposal of Caloi, which is getting ready to open a subsidiary in Shanghai, is to attract Asian manufacturers of parts to the country and, therefore, create the conditions for the setting up of a national bicycle cluster, which if would become an important global supplier, behind China and India.
For this year, the manufacturer, controlled by the Musa family since 1999, foresees growth of 15% in the earnings, to R$ 195 million (US$ 114.7 million), and net profit of R$ 10 million (US$ 5.9 million), compared to the R$ 7 million (US$ 3.6 million) of a year earlier. The first positive result in nearly two decades was reached in 2009. "We are living a new moment in the market of bicycles and, back in time, we made the right choice as we bet on urban mobility", said the President of the company, Eduardo Musa.
Ahead the operation since 2004, Musa explained the concentration of bicycle manufacturers in Southeast Asia, despite the complex logistics of foreign trade, and the growth potential for sales in other regions opens room for a new supplier of global profile. In Brazil, the sales of bicycles were stagnant over the past 10 years, nearly 5.3 million units a year. According to the executive, however, the change in the habits of the consumer, who begins to appreciate the item as a means of urban transportation, gave rise a new "wave" in the segment. To meet the future demand, Caloi will invest R$ 30 million (US$ 17.7 million) over the next three years, in a package that will include the expansion of the productive capacity to 1 million units in 2011. This year, the sales of the company should reach 800 thousand units, 15% of increase compared to 2009, and they will not grow more only because of the unavailability of the lines.
Caloi has a plant in Atibaia (SP), where it produces bikes for children, which represent nearly 20% of the sales of the company, and another in Manaus, intended for the production of items with higher added-value - there, nearly 35% of the cost structure of the products corresponds to imported parts. The President of Caloi also said the company will present, still this year, an electric bike prototype, even though he doesn't believe in the economic viability of the product in the short term.