www.paintshow.com.br
14
Dezembro 2009
PAINT & PINTURA
Chemical Distribution - Customer
service makes the whole difference!
Chemical distributors play an impor-
tant role in Brazil as an interface be-
tween manufacturers and end users,
as it is their responsibility to convey
market requirements to manufac-
turers and add value to the supply
chain on both sides. In addition,
companies in this market have gone
through a major professionalization
process, with special emphasis on
quality, customer service, safety and
environment.
This market has been growing over
the past few years, and its evolution
has been particularly marked by
mergers and acquisitions, which are
changing the face of the industry,
making domestic distributors stron-
ger, while enabling major global
distributors who previously had no
business in Brazil to break into the
largest market in Latin America.
Currently, Brazilian chemical dis-
tributors are gradually optimizing
their operations in order to prepare
themselves to be more competitive by
providing high-quality services and
products for the benefit of the entire
supply chain (distributors and sup-
pliers). Many manufacturers in Brazil
use specialized distributors as sales
channels because that way they can
focus solely on research, development
and production, with no need to own
sales resources. The spreading of Bra-
zilian industries favors this scenario,
and the distribution business will
keep on growing accordingly.
Another testament to the expansion of
Brazil’s chemical distribution market
is the importation of raw materials,
especially from European and Asian
countries, enabling distributors to
increase more and more their sales of
specialty chemicals for all segments
of the chemical industry. In addition,
distributors play a major role in the
chemical business, especially for acting
as facilitators, enabling customers to
access products in the quantities that
they need at affordable prices to en-
sure the competitiveness of their busi-
ness, as small, medium-sized and large
companies are provided with access to
differentiated raw materials and ser-
vices. In fact, the growing demand has
been causing chemical distributors to
invest in solutions for their customers
and logistic improvements, resulting
in an expansion of market coverage.
The distributors heard for this report
are particularly set apart for providing
customers not only with products, but
also prime quality services to meet
stringent requirements. Products are
but materials that several compa-
nies can provide, but quality services,
safety, speed, assurance, traceability,
reliability, customized service, techni-
cal support, quality pre- and after-sa-
les assistance and prompt delivery can
only be provided by serious companies.
And this is what all major distributors
in the Brazilian market demonstrate
in this piece.
Market
There have been strong adjustments
to the Brazilian chemical distribu-
tion market since the economic crisis
broke out in late 2008, including in-
ventory policies, timetables, margins,
credit and prices. In the initial mon-
ths of 2009, still feeling the effects of
the crisis, sales were well below the
levels achieved in the previous year,
consistent with low production levels
and the credit restrictions imposed
by the financial, commercial and
industrial market.
In the second quarter of this year,
Brazil began to show actual signs of
economic rebound, with the manu-
facturing sector expanding on the
back of tax cuts for certain market
segments and improved access to
credit. As a result, the chemical
distribution business resumed its
pre-crisis sales volumes, but with a
lower turnover.
We can concluded that this year
has been characterized by a positive
recover, and will end with significant
growth in the distribution business,
thereby further strengthening the
positive expectations for 2010. In fact,