The Brazilian subsidiary of the German automation and components company, Phoenix Contact GmbH & Co. KG, recently celebrated the expansion of its São Paulo facility. The company’s invested capital in Brazil is about $16 million. It purchased property adjacent to its facility in 2006 in order to increase production to serve growing Brazilian and international markets. The new investment of Phoenix Contact do Brasil totals $7 million, jointly funded between the Brazilian subsidiary and Phoenix Contact headquarters. The Brazilian subsidiary also produces products for worldwide shipment.
“Half of the investments went to new building construction. The remainder was applied in machines and production equipment, as well as local parts warehouses that allow the accelerated operation of whole the productive process,” said Hélcio Nosé, general manager of Phoenix Contact in Brazil.
Coming to stay
Klaus Eisert, Phoenix Contact chief executive officer, visited Brazil for the new plant inauguration on March 11. “The visit of Mr. Eisert to Brazil had a fundamental purpose to show the uncompromising support for the Brazilian subsidiary and market. We came to stay and we practiced what we understood to be the best for the company and for our customers”, explained Nosé.
The next step for the Phoenix Contact Brazilian subsidiary is a focus on the human resources area. “We are very happy with what we we have done, but our collaborators' training has become a potential roadblock to our ability to cover all the markets. So we need to recruit technical personnel to increase our capacity for quality service,” concluded Nosé.
About the author
Sílvia Pereira, [email protected], is a freelance journalist based in Brazil.