Usaflex inaugurates in June the expansion of the factory in Igrejinha
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Starting this week, the actress and model Fernanda Lima, for the first time alongside her daughter, Maria Manoela, three years old, will be the face of the gaucho shoe manufacturer Usaflex in its Mother’s Day campaign, in a media action that , according to the company’s executive, Sérgio Bocayuva, will crown the company’s excellent moment. Over the course of this year, R$ 72 million are planned for investments ranging from the completion of a first stage of expansion of the factory, in Igrejinha, to the new media strategy and the continuity of actions to digitize operations.
“We are living our best moment, comparable to what we had in 2019, in the pre-pandemic. I could say that we have definitely overcome the pandemic and we are not facing some difficulties that the sector has been feeling because we planted back there. While we lived the uncertainty, we invested in technology. Now, we are reaping the rewards”, emphasizes Bocayuva.
Consolidation can be seen in early June, when the official inauguration of the six thousand square meter expansion at the Igrejinha industrial plant is scheduled. As of the following month, the estimate is that the new equipment and shoe production mats will be operating at full speed to reach a leap from 28,000 to up to 34,000 pairs of shoes produced daily. In three years, 330 new jobs will be generated at this Usaflex unit alone.
“Delivery was about a month late compared to what we had initially anticipated. We are transferring stock and production processes. We are looking for greater efficiency and production speed”, points out the executive.
Operation will make it possible to produce 6,000 more pairs of shoes per day
In all, the physical works of the new facilities, which began in the second half of last year, required an investment of R$ 13 million, of which R$ 6 million are being carried out in 2023. In addition, another R$ 6 million are being invested this year in the purchase of new equipment to expand production.
There will be, for example, three new conveyor belts and laser cutting machines that are more precise than the current ones on the production line in Igrejinha. Usaflex’s production, which is 100% from Rio Grande do Sul, is also made at three other units in Vale dos Sinos, in Parobé, Dois Irmãos and Campo Bom. In all, the company currently has 3,400 employees.
The largest portion is precisely in Igrejinha, where 1,400 people work. A volume that, by 2025, should reach 1,700. And the prospect is still expanding. This is because the company is keeping on hold, due to the uncertainties of the Brazilian market, the project for the second stage of expansion in Igrejinha, when the industrial park should gain over three thousand square meters, with expected contributions of over R$ 6 million to be executed, in for the most part, in 2024.
Usaflex closed 2022 with revenues of BRL 520 million – 15% in digital media – and plans to reach BRL 650 million. The indicator for the first quarter, presented this week at the company’s board meeting, is positive. EBITDA is 36% higher than the same period in 2022, and there was a 12.5% increase in sales. According to Bocayuva, the sales portfolio is already filled up to the end of May.
This year’s media campaign by Usaflex, with an expected contribution of R$ 40 million, consolidates the change. “When we took over the brand, in November 2016, we had 75% of the consumer public made up of women over 40 years old. Today, this percentage is at 55%, and we are reaching, mainly with increasingly digital actions, the public from 35 years old”, says Bocayuva.
Focus on digital and advancement of franchises
This year alone, the company plans to invest R$ 20 million in actions that unite the digital experience with the physical purchase of Usaflex products. It is part of a plan designed before the pandemic and which became a reality, in fact, from 2021, with the plan to invest BRL 100 million by 2025 – half of this amount, contributed in 2022.
“We are digitizing, with great results, but we insist on making it clear that we are not and will not be a digital company, or digital sales. Our actions increasingly integrate the variety that the customer can find in the electronic medium with the quality of the experience at a Usaflex store”, explains the executive.
Experiences that include, for example, the infinite shelf or showcase. That is, the product may not be in the store’s physical inventory, but it can be viewed and purchased there, digitally, with delivery when and how the customer prefers.
From its logistics center in Espírito Santo, the company has managed to deliver products in up to two hours. A capillarity that, Sérgio Bocayuva intends, will be even more agile in 2023, with the advancement of franchises.
Usaflex started the process of franchised stores in 2016, when the Axxon Group took over its operations, and reached 275. The goal is to reach 340 in 2023. Of these, 40 will be in the South Region. Digital tools are already present in 90% of these stores.
DATASHEET
Investment: BRL 72 million
Internship: Running
Company: Usaflex
City: little church
Area: Industry
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Investments in 2022: BRL 57 million
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