Romi increases foreign income by 35%
DCI 02/19/2009
Regardless of the turbulence period caused by the international financial crisis Indústrias Romi S.A. ended the year with adjusted net profit of R$ 113.8 million, which represents a fall of 8.8% compared to 2007. In the foreign market the company income increased 35% in the year and reached US$ 57.3 million showing the competitiveness of the products abroad. The national leader in the markets of machine tools and machines for plastics headquartered in Santa Bárbara D'Oeste, in the Metropolitan Region of Campinas, ended 2008 with an operating net income of R$ 696.1 million (US$ 380.4 million), a value 10.1% above 2007's. From the fourth quarter on, when the world crisis started affecting Brazil, Romi started undergoing structural changes in order to adapt itself to the new reality. One of them was to invest in the portfolio of new products. According to Romi's CEO Livando Aguir dos Santos, in the sector of machine tools Romi adopted the strategy of developing heavier products that meet the needs of the infrastructure area. "We launched new lathes, sold them during last year, delivered them and the sales projections for such product continue during the year of 2009", he affirmed to DCI. Considering such new portfolio of products, Romi foresees an income 2% smaller for 2009 in a worst-case scenario and 7% higher in an optimistic scenario. Regarding the investments foreseen for 2009 in both projects developed by the company (Paradiso and Vulcano) which were R$ 120 million (US$ 52.2 million), Romi reduced the investments to R$ 75 million (US$ 32.6 million) because of the crisis, contemplating the investments for the maintenance of the company and the end of the first stage of the projects.