Freudenberg-NOK meets the headquarters and goes shopping in the Country
DCI - 09/01/10
Freudenberg-NOK, the world leader in sealings, goes shopping. According to the company's CEO, George Luiz Rugitsky, the German headquarters has made repeated charges that acquisitions being closed to expand the company's presence in the country. With no Chinese competitor in Brazil yet, the company hopes to expand its presence in sectors where it already serves, such as automobiles, which represents 50% of its business in Brazil. "Chinese companies working in the line of technical products have not yet arrived in Brazil, but is a matter of time", says Rugitsky.Freudenberg-NOK also wants to grow in the replacement segment for the automotive industry, which represents 28% of its business, and also for industries in general, attending the remaining 22% of company revenues. "We also want to grow in other sectors of the economy, as in the oil sector, on the supply for the operation of the pre-salt layer", explains the CEO.
The German manufacturer is in Brazil since 1973, but only after 1998 began to fight for an effective space in the market. "Since the 1990s, we grew five times our original size", says Rugitsky. The German group Freudenberg has 32 thousand employees worldwide: in Brazil are 1.3 thousand employees, of which 530 specifically in the sealing unit located in the Municipality of Diadema (SP). In 2009, the group earned R$ 500 million (US$ 285.7 million) in Brazil, in its six factories. Locally, Freudenberg-NOK, a business unit of the group focused on technology in vibration control and sealing, grew 3.5% last year.
Freudenberg-NOK South America reports that the planned investments for Brazil are 30% higher than those foreseen in 2008, when the global crisis had not yet started. Last year, the company invested in a new line of production of joints, as part of a program of investments of over R$ 100 million (US$ 50.8 million) of the group in Brazil for the next five years. "Of such total, R$ 4 million (US$ 2.03 million) was allocated to new products development and modernization of the industrial park of the company", explained the executive. Freudenberg-NOK is an association of the German Freudenberg with the Japanese NOK. From Brazil, the products are exported throughout South America.