São Paulo – The company Riva, which manufactures utilitarian objects in stainless steel, titanium and silver, is shipping in a few days a new kind of pan named "food container" for Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia. The product was designed by the company from Caxias do Sul, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, exclusively for a Saudi company.
According to Riva’s creative director, Rubens Simões Neto, the "food containers” ordered by the Saudi client are made in industrial size and fit with a double layer of stainless steel or titanium. A total of 600 pieces were sold: 300 with “titanium gold” finishing and 300 with stainless steel finishing, in four different sizes: 40 centimetres in diameter, 35 centimetres, 30 centimetres and 25 centimetres in diameter.
These pans, Simões explains, were designed to comply with a client’s request: to keep the food warmer for a longer time without having to reheat the pan. For this reason, the pans’ system mimes a vacuum flask’s: they are fit with an inner and an outer “wall” with air between them. This system prevents heat transfer and allows the food to keep the temperature for a longer period. The design also meets the client’s need.
“They asked us to develop a product that freed food from the need to be reheated after served. We have prepared five different models with double lids, locks, hermetically sealed and which were also beautiful and sophisticated enough to be used during parties and in palaces. They are practically exclusive designs," says Simões. It took the company two years to develop the “food container” and receive the purchase order. Each unit may reach the price of US$ 280.
The order is already bearing fruit: a client from Kuwait, for instance, ordered “food containers” featuring the same technology, though 60 centimeters in diameter.
An old client
The Saudi client is not new in Riva’s portfolio of clients. The company has already exported other products, such as silverware, cutlery and trays to Riyadh. This year, a shipment has been sent to the buyer. “This is a larger group, which operates in different segments, such as retail, hotels and restaurants. I do business with a buyer from just one of the companies sectors,” says Simões. The "food containers” should be used in catering services. The other products are resold in the country.
Riva has exported to clients from Canada, United States, Angola, China, Peru, Haiti, Lebanon and Swiss since 2006. Exports to Saudi Arabia started around four years ago, when the buyer visited Riva’s booth at the Maison & Objet trade fair, held annually in Paris.
“It took us some years to see results of our attendance at the fair, but it was well worth it. I believe they will keep on buying from us, as they have seen we are fully capable of developing high quality products,” he says.
Contact
Riva
Rua Abel Postali, 445, Industrial District, Caxias do Sul, RS.
Email: bruno@riva.com.br
Phone: (+5554) 3227-1200
*Translated by Rodrigo Mendonça
