Whirlpool invests in technology center in the Country
O Estado de S. Paulo - 04/24/2008
Indian and Chinese consumers do not even dream about where the projects of the washing machines that are in their houses are conceived. The municipality of Rio Claro, located at 180 kilometers from the capital of São Paulo, the second Brazilian municipality to have electric energy, is where the prototypes of these products the Whirlpool Corporation, the world's biggest manufacturer of electric household appliances come from. "Nearly 40% of the launchings of electric household appliances for laundering (dishwashes and washing machines) made last year by the global corporation were projected in the city's laundering technology center ", said the company's president of the Electric Household Appliances Unit for Latin America Jose Drummond. The center exports technology to nearly 30 countries. « These products do not even pass by the national market », said the executive. Yesterday, Drummond announced investments of R$ 10 million (US$ 5.7 million) in the Rio Claro technology center, which has become a reference for the corporation. He pointed out that although exports of products have fallen by half last year and now represent only 15% of the sales of the subsidiary, Brazil is exporting not only knowledge, but also talents. « Today we have 40 Brazilian expatriated professionals. » The excellence of the Brazilian technology in the production of washers is not restricted to exhaustive product tests. Those who visit the technology center see lead bars that are centrifugated in the washers as if they were clothes. The intention is testing the equipment's resistance, when the clothes' weight increases as they get soaked with water. Despite the tests, the focus of the projects conceived in the Rio Claro technology center is, today, exactly the shortage of natural resources, such as water and energy, remarked the vice-president of Development of Products Rogério Martins. He said that the company has just brought a washer that authomaticaly adjusts the volume of water and soap, without any waste, to the market. This year, the global investments of Whirlpool, which is the owner of the Brastemp, Consul and KitchenAid brands, should amount to US$ 100 million in Brazil. Most of this amount will be destinated to new technologies, affirmed Drummond. The aim of the subsidiary for 2007 is to grow between 10% and 15%, after having closed 2007 with an expansion of 20% and sales of almost R$ 6 billion (US$ 3.1 billion), with 7 million products, a record for the company.