Frisomat Announces Its First Production Facility In Brazil

April 7, 2011 - PRLog -- Frisomat, a Belgian multinational which develops, designs, produces and builds pre-engineered buildings in cold rolled steel, organizes the first stone-laying of its new production facility in Brazil in the beginning of April 2011. The factory will come near Monte Mor in the inland parts of the São Paulo state.

In the presence of Kris Peeters, Flemish Minister-President, and other Brazilian authorities, Frisomat announces the start of its first production unit in Brazil for the second semester in 2011.

“We want to combine our technology and international knowhow with a strong local presence. To guarantee fast delivery of our products, one of our strengths, we must produce locally. Furthermore we believe the rise of the Brazilian and Latin American markets to justify our investment in an expansion of our production capacity.” explains Guy Somers, founder and chairman of the group.

With an initial investment of 39 mio. reais (17 mio. euro), on a terrain of 1.435.000m², the group wants to introduce a new concept in the Brazilian pre-engineered buildings : prefabricated metallic buildings, according to a standardized concept and an international warrant of quality, focused upon small and medium buildings, with a fast delivery, easy transport and assembly, by which specialized machinery and manpower are unnecessary.
On the vast terrain, Frisomat also announces the launch of an industrial and logistics park, planned for 2012.

“A fast delivery is vital for our customers. Two weeks ago, we got an order for a 3.000m² hall in Ruanda. As for the moment, we are already loading the hangar in containers for shipment. We can anticipate very quickly and flexible on the needs of our clients because we control the production process ourselves. We want to deliver our buildings within 15 to 20 days after the order.” according to Guy Somers.

In spite of the belief in vertical integration of the production process, a lot of components for a Brazilian project will be bought locally. “We will focus upon the production of metallic structures.” explains Guy Somers. “Since there are a lot of good Brazilian suppliers of steel sheets and sandwich panels, it is not our priority to invest in the production of these components, which have become a commodity nowadays. We choose to have good suppliers.” he finishes.

BRAZIL

Thanks to the bright economic future and the fact to be the most important Latin American economy, Frisomat chose Brazil as its logic location for a new production unit. The first Brazilian Frisomat factory will start producing in the second semester of 2011. Its extensions will take place in function of the local demand.

   Economic center of Latin America
   A large market (critical mass)
   Bright economic perspectives for the upcoming years
   Political and economic stability
   Cultural connection with Europe, which will simplify the integration
   A large offer on the labor market, qualitative and quantitative: from workers to engineers
   Strategic situation in Latin America

LOCATION

From the headquarters in Monte Mor – close to the city of Campinas, a 100km from the economic capital São Paulo, close to the port of Santos, next to the international airport of Viracopos and on one of the main axes in Brazil – the industrial buildings will be commercialised and delivered in the entire country. For this purpose, Frisomat will set up a network of commercial salesmen and building crews in the different Brazilian states.
The focus is the Brazilian territory, from which other Latin American countries can be reached in a later phase.

The proximity of the ports and most important traffic axes for trucks and trains, brings one more asset to this location. The ports will be used for the shipment of the most important raw material, steel.

Since Brazil is a new market for Frisomat, not yet prospected by Frisomat, it is a production expansion and not about moving the production to a low-wage country. On the contrary : the Brazilian production plant is only intended for the local market. Since the Brazilian plant won’t produce each of the Frisomat models, a lot of components will still be imported from the European factories.

INDUSTRIAL AND LOGISTIC CONDOMINIUM

On the vast terrain of 143ha in Monte Mor, Frisomat also plans to develop an industrial and logistics business park. An attractive advantage is the proximity of Campinas - an industrial city with 1 mio. inhabitants, less than 100km away from São Paulo -, on the main axes of the country and only 15km away from the international airport of Viracopos, which is intensifying its position as the country’s main airport for goods and passengers.

Monte Mor is a city with a high growth potential, a political policy to attract new investments, advantageous fiscal benefits, a lot of industrial areas still left to develop, and with some major infrastructure works : waste water treatment, improving the highways, asphalting the direct road towards the airport, installing optical cables and a connection to the gas network.

“Since we have bought the terrain recently, we are still busy working out the best concept for the industrial and logistics park on the base of the demand.” according to Benoît Somers, responsible of Frisomat Brazil. The park will be launched in 2012 and will focus on sustainability, with a 300.000m² nature reserve and a liking for non-polluting businesses.” he adds.

Next to the infrastructure of a congress centre, a heliport, a connection to the optical cable and gas network, these industrial areas will offer everything according to the wishes of the client, if demanded entirely built with a hall and/or offices, to rent or to buy. “Since it is a very big step for European SME’s to set up something in Brazil (due to the law, the administration, the language, the safety) we want to offer these companies a platform where they can skip a few steps.” explains Benoît Somers.

FRISOMAT

Frisomat develops, designs, produces and builts innovative industrial buildings in cold rolled galvanized steel. As a completely integrated international manufacturer, Frisomat manages and controls the entire production chain – from project to design, production and transport.

The company was founded in 1978 by Guy Somers and has experienced a steady process of strong vertical integration and territorial growth.

The headquarters and research and development are in Wijnegem, close to Antwerp in Belgium. The Belgian and Romanian factories support the strong international development and the 15 European and African branches.

Next to Brazil being the 16th Frisomat branch, it will also be the 3rd production unit and the first step on the Latin American market.

On the basis of 7 standardized concepts, Frisomat has a range of 200 models. Although the main focus is on standardization, the projects can be personalized in a technical and architectural view, all according the wishes of the client.  
With various accessories, different dimensions and high-end finishing – insulated or not, with or without a mezzanine – the applications are almost endless : aircraft hangars for public or private aviation; agricultural hangars, for small farms to big cooperatives; hangars for construction sites, production plants, storage rooms, workshops, supermarkets, offices and sports centres…

Some advantages of the Frisomat concept : fast delivery, easy transport (everything fits in one container), swift and easy assembly by which heavy machinery and specialized workforce are unnecessary, a construction site without waste : everything is one giant building kit and has only to be bolted together on the construction site, relocatable, high-end materials and finishing, and all this for a very advantageous price.

The group preserves its philosophy of long term thinking where everything is reinvested in the development of new products, state-of-the-art machinery, new technologies and new markets.

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Frisomat designs, develops, produces and builds innovative buildings made out of cold rolled, galvanized steel. Pre-engineered industrial buildings or modular hangars. Innovative steel constructions.


The headquarters and research and development are in Wijnegem, close to Antwerp in Belgium. The Belgian and Romanian factories support the strong international development and the 15 European and African branches.

Next to Brazil being the 16th Frisomat branch, it will also be the 3rd production unit and the first step on the Latin American market.

With various accessories, different dimensions and high-end finishing – insulated or not, with or without a mezzanine – the applications are almost endless : aircraft hangars for public or private aviation; agricultural hangars, for small farms to big cooperatives; hangars for construction sites, production plants, storage rooms, workshops, supermarkets, offices and sports centres…