Textile industry grows with an eye on the FIFA Soccer World Cup
DCI
The Brazilian textile industry is optimistic with the perspective of the growth in the demand of the hotel sector in the next years, but it fears an increase of the imported product in an area still to be explored: the bed, kitchen and bath segment. Companies like Sabie, Cedro and Flex, of different niches, believe the construction of new hotels, inns and restaurants, to cater to tourists, between the 2014 FIFA Soccer World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games will represent an increase ranging from 5% to 15% in the sales of the segment.
The estimates foresee, only in the city of Rio de Janeiro, the construction of 14 to 20 new hotels, according to the licensing processes registered with the City Administration, verified by the Brazilian Association of the Hotel Industry (Abih). In the project delivered to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) the construction of 12 thousand 4- and 5-star rooms, to cater only to the so-called "Olympic family", that it, athletes, technical commission and the press is foreseen.
In this count, the hotel expansion that will be carried out in the municipalities of Brasília, Belo Horizonte, Cuiabá, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Manaus, Natal, Porto Alegre, Recife, Salvador and São Paulo, which will host the first phase of the World Cup, is also added. According to the Abih, for each single room in a 5-star hotel, it will be necessary an outfit with four sets of single bedclothes, two quilts, four pillowcases and four pillows.
Supplier of a line of products with 300 items, with personalized fabrics and finishing, Sabie bets the hotel segment, which currently corresponds to 40% of the company earnings, overcomes the hospital segment, currently with a 50% share. "This process should take place in the middle and long run, but we are waiting for a more concrete sign in order to make the planning", affirms Roberto Toschi, Marketing Officer. Sabie, which supplies the Albert Einstein, São Luiz and Sírio-Libanês hospitals in São Paulo, and the Atlântica, Blue Tree, Accor, Pestana and Estanplaza hotel chains, may install a third shift in its 300-employee industrial line, located in Ipiranga, a neighborhood in the city of São Paulo, in view of the increase in the demand.
However, Toschi fears the arrival of Chinese products in the Country. "In the segment of bed, kitchen and bath, there isn't an offer of the Chinese finished product yet, but there is the fear", he affirms. Today, the company receives, on the average, 1,500 orders a month and registers average earnings of R$ 7 million (US$ 4.1 million). For next year, Toschi foresees a minimum growth of 5%.