Isaura Daniel*
isaura.daniel@anba.com.br
São Paulo – Full Gauge, a cooling and solar heating equipment factory from the city of Canoas, in the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, promoted its first shipment to the United Arab Emirates in March. The company sold a container of products to a local cooling industry. The instruments that Full Gauge makes operate as the brain of the equipment. In the case of solar heating, the product made control water circulation for operation of the system.
The person in charge of the Export Department at Full Gauge, Rodnei Peres, believes that at least another four containers of products should be sent to the client in the Emirates by the end of the year. The containers are aerial and carry between two and three thousand units each. This is the first company sale to the Emirates, but not to the Arab world. Full Gauge already exports to Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon. The Saudis and Egyptians were the first company clients in the region.
The Saudis bought equipment for solar heating. "The region has great incidence of sun and they make use of it to heat sanitary water (used, for example, in taps and showers)," explained Peres. The buyers of Full Gauge products in Saudi Arabia are both distributors and makers of solar heating systems. In the Arab region, in general, the equipment sold is both for solar heating and for cooling.
"The market in the League of Arab States is growing significantly. We have been noticing a growth in the demand for this kind of solution," stated Peres. This year a company representative participated in the Gulfood, the food sector fair that took place in Dubai, in February. In 2009 the company plans to exhibit in the fair. Full Gauge plans are to increase exports to the Arab market by 25% this year, mainly due to entry into the Emirates.
Currently, the main market for the company is Latin America, followed by Europe, Asia and Africa. Full Gauge exports to over 50 countries and has 40% of revenues from foreign trade. Exports started reaching an expressive figure five years ago. The first foreign markets were Uruguay and Argentina. The main company clients are large factories that produce equipment for cooling.
Full Gauge instruments are used in cooling systems for cold storage chambers, frozen product areas in supermarkets, vaccine storage, households and freezers, among others. To promote the company products, the organisation exhibits at fairs in Brazil and abroad. In total the company goes to over 25 fairs a year, according to the person in charge for the Communications and Marketing Department at Full Gauge, Valéria Salles. The fairs the company participates in range from China to the United States, Germany and Italy.
Gobbi and Perguer
Full Gauge was established in 1985 by entrepreneurs Antonio Gobbi and Flavio Perguer. Both of them used to work at oil company Petrobras and decided to join forces and open their own company. The business started small and developed. Nowadays the company covers two buildings, one being the production complex and the other the administrative department, and it employs 220 people.
The industrial complex covers an area of 1,300 square metres and should double in size after the expansion plan that is scheduled to begin this year. According to Valéria, the company plans to increase production and expand revenues by 30% this year. Full Gauge does not disclose production and revenue figures.
Contact
Full Gauge Controls
Telephone: (+55 51) 3475-3308
Site: www.fullgauge.com.br
*Translated by Mark Ament
