The Businesswoman who Believes in Santa Claus
O Estado de S. Paulo 10/05/10
The warehouses of Cipolatti, largest company of Christmas decorations of shopping malls of Latin America, headquartered in Taboão da Serra, in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, are already operating at a fast pace. This year, Cipolatti will decorate 128 malls, three of which are abroad- in Uruguay, Argentina and Angola. The volume of contracts is 16% greater than that of 2009 when the Cipolatti delivered 110 orders. "The heated demand results from partnerships with the biggest companies of the sector and the launch of several malls", says Ana Cecilia Cipolatti, Commercial Officer of the company. Cipolatti, whose portfolio features clients like the Morumbi and the Ibirapuera malls, in São Paulo, Barra Shopping, in Rio, and ParkShopping, in Brasilia, does not disclose its earnings, but the market estimates the price of decoration of a mall can range from R$ 500 thousand (US$ 294 thousand) to R$ 1.5 thousand (US$ 882.4 thousand).The leadership in this market niche comes from the pioneering of the matriarch of the family, Conceição Cipolatti, born in Minas Gerais, mother of Ana Cecilia and three other children, who currently run the company. The first order delivered by Mrs. Conceição was made by BH Shopping, from Belo Horizonte, in 1981. Since then, says Ana Cecilia, the market of decorations took a leap of modernity, with a lot of technology and frills. According to her, in the early days of Cipolatti there was no imported material, which currently represents 70% of the raw material used by the company in the production of nearly 400 Christmas themes.
The amount of items used by Cipolatti in the putting up of the Christmas decorations is outstanding: 80 tons of wood, 32 million lights, 3.1 million balls, 9 thousand Christmas trees and 10 thousand garlands, among other accessories. To store all that material, Cipolatti has a setting up area with 30 thousand square meters, in Taboão da Serra, and a showroom with one thousand square meters, where the Christmas themes are exposed during the first six months of the year. Besides, the company has a deposit in Jacareí (SP).
The apex of the activities takes place in the second half, especially as of the middle of October, when Cipolatti starts delivering the orders. "We have one month to put up the decorations of all malls", says Ana Cecilia. To do that, the fixed team of 400 employees increases to 2 thousand throughout the country. The inspiration to create the Christmas motives many times arises at family meetings. "While the people around go brainstorming, we, as good citizens from Minas Gerais, create over bread and coffee", says Ana Cecilia. Santa Claus is a serious issue in the family. Every year, the Cipolatti brothers compete among them to see who makes prettiest homemade Christmas decorations. "Here, everyone believes in Santa Claus", says Ana Cecilia.