Interview with Marcelo Hack, Superintendent of Perini Business Park

Let's first talk about Perini Business Park: its origin, its characteristics and what makes it stand out.

Our company began from an idea. The entrepreneur who started our company arrived in Brazil in 1974. He travelled from the north to the south of Brazil to find the right place to set up his business, passing through Rio, São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul. He decided to stay in Santa Catarina, because he liked the culture, the people and their origins. At that time, in 1974, he didn’t find the right place to start up a ‘Plug and Play’ for his business; he had to do with the installations that were available and he began his first site: Fabio Perini, a factory of paper machines. By 1994, Joinville, Brazil still didn’t have a ‘Plug and Play’ system of business parks and so in 1997 he decided to develop this idea and began plans to build a business park. In 1997 the first areas were purchased and in 1999, Perville was built for the project. In 2001, we inaugurated the park.

Since then, we have been offering appropriate installations for industries that come from other countries, other states and also from Santa Catarina itself. These businesses can set themselves up very quickly, which is particularly important nowadays as environmental licensing laws are so complex that a company needs to be suitably accommodated well before it is able to begin taking in money. Many people can lose a year before they can even begin functioning, and how much does one year cost a company? So this really is the main idea behind our Business Park.

Today we stand out in the market because of the quality of service that we offer. We offer exceptionally high quality installations and as we have such a large number of clients it means we can share not only the costs of the condominium installations but we can also share B2B (Business to Business); companies within the complex sharing services with other companies within the business park. So we offer this synergy and we make it work.

Let’s analyse your competition. Do other parks exist?

Yes, other parks do exist. Our business is both very global and local. It is global because it can involve the whole world in terms of business and it is local because we are situated in Joinville, and we need to look for clients or competitors who are in our region. We do have competition, but in our region our competitors are small in relation to us, and in São Paulo we have larger competitors but in my opinion they don’t greatly affect us because we have different strategies with us being in Santa Catarina and those companies being in São Paulo.

What are the advantages in terms of industry that this State can offer in comparison to São Paulo or other States?

I personally see Santa Catarina as having the best access in the country. Santa Catarina has the best position in terms of port logistics in the whole Latin America. Today countries, businesses and industries live off international business and the fact that here you have a direct channel through the ports that connects with the external market is really important. The northern region of Santa Catarina, particularly around Joinville, has 5 ports in an area of 130km. Therefore you have the possibility of choosing which port you want to import to or export from. We also have access to the BR101 highway and connection to the rail network. So logistically Santa Catarina is very competitive. We are close to the São Paulo market, at 500km but we aren’t in it as it is very competitive in terms of cost.

The State of Santa Catarina offers many advantageous conditions for international businesses that would like to set up here. We have a population of 5 million people and we are the sixth economy of Brazil. When you look at our education and health indicators, we are always amongst the best in the country, and our problems are much smaller than other States. It is much easier to administrate a smaller state than a larger one.

Santa Catarina’s numbers speak for themselves and in my opinion despite its small size; Santa Catarina is the best place after São Paulo to set up a business.

We are here in Joinville, the primary economic metropolis in the State and the third in Southern Brazil. Can you tell us about Joinville, which is at the centre of the metal-mechanics industry?

Today in Joinville, we have two principal sectors that drive the city's economy: the metal-mechanics sector and the plastics sector. Both sectors add a lot of value to the finished product. We have an important production chain in the automotive sector and in the plastics sector particularly in the cosmetics industry, an area of great value.

The metal-mechanics industry is very diverse; we have businesses such as TUPY Foundry, Whirlpool which is a world leader in its sector, Shultz a leader in the Latin American market and Tigre - national leading producer of PVC tubes and connections.

There is also the textile sector, whose main competitor today is China.

What is the process for a client who wants to become a part of Perini Business Park? Does a client contact you or do you contact potential clients?

Our business is quite particular. Because our clients are not out on the street, it isn’t a simple case of putting an advertisement in the newspaper, the client reading it and suddenly deciding to move their business to Perini Business Park. It doesn’t work that way. Our business works by networking. We have excellent relationships with the State and Municipal Governments, with large real estate agents in São Paulo such as Jones Lang LaSalle, Binswanger and Cushman and also with the real estate agents in our region.

In the case of São Paulo we deal exclusively with industrial real estate. In our region, it is different; many times we have to link industrial with residential because some executives that are moving to our region will perhaps also want to look for a house etc.

Normally when companies decide to come to Joinville, their first point of contact is the government. They want to know how the city and State operate, what benefits the State can offer them, what opportunities they have to finance their move etc. So in most cases our clients come to us via these types of contacts.

Let’s now talk about your future plans. You have a great development potential; half of the project is not yet completed, so what are your plans?

We have a construction program with more than 15 years in the running and we are constantly building here in the park. We have a construction target of approximately 20-25 thousand square meters per year.

We work in two ways; a client can receive an area ready for them to move in where we just have to finish the façade for them. We have a set construction that suits the requirements of 95% of clients. Or when a company has specific requirements we make a ‘Plug and Play’ for them under a certain time frame.

In the last two years we have built 60 thousand square meters. It has been a very important two years for us. This year we have built 20 thousand square meters.

As I have said we are constantly building, but if we aren’t taking on new clients we reduce our production, and when clients do join us we increase our production. We find the way to balance supply and demand.

We are very focused on services. As we are now a centre for industry, we need to offer a wide range of services within the park, so that companies have direct access to cleaning services, maintenance, lawyers, doctors, dentists, restaurants etc. Today we have 6 restaurants on site; we have doctors and dentists on site every day of the week. We have a library, banks, a bakery; things you wouldn’t normally imagine within a business park. We are building a large new service area. We don’t yet have a hotel, as currently the comprehensive plan does not allow hotels, although we do have a proposal for one. As of next year we will have a technical training centre for TUPY which is a leading technical educational institute. We have a football field, a project to have an academy, 600 thousand meters squared of permanent preservation area, with ecological trails all maintained by the business park. We have an agreement with the University here in Joinville to undertake biological studies. We are starting to build an environmental educational unit. We are the first multi-sectorial condominium complex in Brazil to treat 100% of its waste matter. In April we opened a waste treatment unit sufficient for the entire business park growth. Today we have the capacity to ensure all our companies achieve ISO 14000.

Our vision of the future is largely linked to providing these services. Industry will always grow but we need to provide excellent services so that the companies here can thrive. We want to make sure we provide 100% of the periphery services that a company needs.

Do you use benchmarking in terms of services?

In 2012 our Commercial Director spent 15 days in the USA just visiting business parks and last year we went to China and Dubai. We do a lot of benchmarking because it’s a great and economical way of getting good ideas.

Do you have a final message on behalf of Perini Business Park to give to any potential international clients wanting to come to Brazil?

Normally when you come to a new market, you don’t know the local culture and you may have difficulties understanding the local systems and processes, the fact that you can come to a place that is completely structured, where you have all the complex licensing already taken care of for you and all the periphery services that you might need to begin a business is hugely important. I believe we are more than able to offer this.

We know from experience, having left Italy and having gone outside of Brazil for new business ventures, that a company moving abroad encounters difficulties. Even within Brazil, in the north and south there are differences in culture and infrastructure. The fact that here you can have the infrastructure ready for you with all the periphery services from day one gives you the flexibility and confidence in your new business move. This is the great advantage we offer businesses whether national or international.