Motorola brings scanner production to Brazil
Valor Econômico 04/02/2009
It is almost impossible to separate the Motorola brand from cell phones, but it is the bar codes readers that start coming out of the company plant in Jaguariúna (SP) now. With the production of scanners, Motorola takes a new step towards the diversification of its activities in Brazil. The expansion of the business started last year, when the company started producing wireless modules (equipment used in car trackers and telemetry systems, for instance). And it may gain a new chapter in the next months: the production of the so-called data collectors, handheld computers used by vendors or field employees that need to measure the consumption of something, is under analysis.
For now, a model of laser scanner (the type used in supermarket cashier desks) will be produced in Jaguariúna and the beginning of the sales is expected for next week. The idea is to distribute 75% of the production in the domestic market and the rest in Argentina and Chile, at first. There is no official data, but Motorola estimates the scanner market has sales of 250 thousand units a year in Brazil. From that total, 30% are laser readers, like those the company started to producing in Brazil. Vanderlei Ferreira, Motorola managing officer of corporate mobility for Latin America, says the company has 25% of this segment and the goal is to at least double the share. The business division called corporate mobility has been the most profitable for the company. In the last quarter of 2008, it was the only area whose global sales increased. While the total income of the company fell 26% in relation to the fourth quarter of 2007, to US$ 7.1 billion, the sales of the corporate mobility unit increased 4%, getting to US$ 2.2 billion, with an operating profit of US$ 466 million.