11/11/2008 15h33
Festo plans to double Brazils participation in the company until 2014
Gazeta Mercantil - 11/11/2008
The crisis is out of the focus of Eberhard Veit, main executive of Festo, a German producer of equipment for industrial automation. The company keeps high growth rates in the main markets in which it works and Veit does not plan to reduce the forecasts, at least not for now. Even in the United States, where the financial shocks started and there is risk of recession, Festo's business get to the end of 2008 with a 17% high. In China, third biggest market among the more than one hundred markets in which the company is present, the annual growth will reach 20%. As for Brazil, where the Festo came 40 years ago, the variation should reach 13%, to R$ 280 million (US$ 130 million) "When the economy does well, clients look for us to expand production. If there is recession, they look for us to become more competitive", affirmed the executive. "The crisis teaches the companies to become stronger. Instead of thinking about recession, we think about innovation so either way we are ready, in case anything happens", he said. In Brazil, the impression is the same. Although the R$ 250 million (US$ 130.2 million) that Festo Brasil sold in 2007 represents a little more than 5% in the world revenue of the company (€ 1.7 billion, or R$ 4.7 billion), the Country represents the Festo's fourth biggest market - after the headquarters, in Germany, the United States, and China. The position takes into account not only the revenue, but also the strategic relevance of the region. According to Veit, the Brazilian center of development and research is one of the principal ones among the 26 that the company keeps outside Germany. In the goal plan that Festo has just finished until 2014, the objective is that the business in Brazil double its size in five years. That will be possible with the growth of sectors that it assist, among which the automotive one, food industry, oil and gas, and others - even though some have started to show a reversion. Last week, data from the National Association of the manufacturers of Automotive Vehicles (Anfavea) revealed a fall of 2.1% in sales of car in October, compared to the same month of 2007. It was the first retraction in the sector after two years. "Even with a fall in the automotive sector, for example, we will be placed in very high levels, said the president of Festo in Brazil Waldomiro Modena.
