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158 INDUSTRY TODAY

PROFILE • DÂNICA CORPORATION

DÂNICA CORPORATION A/S IS BRAZIL’SLEADING MANUFACTURER AND INSTALLEROF TURN-KEY THERMAL INSULATION SYSTEMSFOR COLD STORES AND SUPERMARKETS.WITH A 44 PERCENT MARKET SHARE, THEDANISH GIANT SENDS CHILLS DOWN THESPINE OF COMPETITORS AND WITH ANAGGRESSIVE SALES AND EXPANSION STRATEGYSHOWS NO SIGN OF LOSING GROUND.REUBEN FORD TAKES A CLOSER LOOK ATHOW WHEN IT COMES TO COOL, ALL-ROUNDSOLUTIONS AND EXCELLENT SERVICE, THEINDUSTRY TURNS TO DÂNICA.

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DÂNICA CORPORATION • PROFILE

ITH A BOOMING ECONOMY AND INCREAS-ingly valuable currency, Brazil is not onlyunder the watchful eye of cautious economists,but the focus of international investors. ForDânica Corporation the interest in the country’s

emerging market has been long-standing. When the Danish-based holding company decided to take its 20 years of expertisein the thermal insulation segment and apply it to an emergingmarket of great potential, it immediately thought of Brazil.

Strategically targeting emerging markets, Dânica is essentiallysecuring its future. The company is looking ahead to 2035, whenaccording to Goldman Sachs the global macro-economicscheme will have significantly shifted, placing emerging mar-kets in a position of current developed markets, and eventuallyovertaking them. Government benefits and a more stabledomestic economic climate have increased the standard of liv-ing in Brazil and the nation’s middle class is growing. “As peo-ple move out of the poor end of the population, they start buy-ing more meats and medicine,” confirms Steffan Nevermann,Dânica’s managing director. “Increased demand for food andmedicine translates into growth potential for Dânica, as theproducts our divisions produce are geared toward those areas.”

In 1998, the company purchased a plant in Joinville, SantaCatarina, where it began manufacturing thermal insulated pan-els and doors for industrial and commercial cold stores. Actually,manufacturing these units was only part of what the companydid – it also custom-designed, delivered, and erected them, offer-ing clients a complete turnkey solution while transforming itsoperation into a totally vertically integrated production process.

BUILDING IN BRAZILWith determination and conviction, Dânica wasted no time inbuilding its brand in Brazil. The company immediately beganinjecting a lot of capital into the enterprise with the aim ofquickly conquering the market and achieving (and maintaining)aggressive growth rates. The strategies were successful.

In the last 13 years the company has opened three more plantsand three distribution centers in Brazil, strategically locatedthroughout the country. In addition to its original facility inJoinville, Dânica has plants in Taboada, located in the Central-West state, Mato Grosso do Sul, Lucas do Rio Verde, in MatoGrosso state (neighboring São Paulo state), and in the state cap-ital of Pernambuco, Recife. The factories, offices and distribu-tion centers are all positioned to allow the best market access.Currently employing 850 people, Dânica’s structure is con-stantly growing in its desire to service the entire country.

Expansion has been one of the keys to sustaining remarkablegrowth rates that average 30 percent a year. “The reason weopened the Mato Grosso plant in 2006 was to take advantage ofthe sweeping expansion of chicken farming in the region,”explains Nevermann. A partnership with Brazil’s two largest

160 INDUSTRY TODAY

food giants, Sadia and Perdigão, that year meant that the plantwas supplying seven million square feet of panels and doors forcold storage units within a year. “Brazil is one of the biggestmeat manufacturers in the world and we service all the big bil-lion-dollar conglomerates,” he continues.

Today, Dânica has five divisions in Brazil: Industrial ColdStores, Commercial Cold Stores, Civil Construction, CleanRooms and Marine & Offshore operations. Production andinstallation of Cold Stores was Dânica’s main primary focusuntil 2008, at which time the industrial segment representedmore 60 percent of its business. However, the diversification hascome in the last three years in the bid to dominate three ofBrazil’s most thriving markets.

The naval and offshore division specializes in making accom-modation modules and it ships quarters for tankers and oil plat-

forms (in 2009, it supplied work and living units for Mexilhão,the largest boring platform ever produced by Brazilian oil giantPetrobras). Although currently accountable for the smallest per-centage of annual revenue, the civil construction sector is grow-ing the most rapidly in accordance with the building boomBrazil is currently experiencing.

CLEAN SWEEP SOLUTIONSAs each of the divisions sweep into the market, Dânica assumesits usual prominent position. Responsible for almost a quarterof total sales, Dânica’s clean room division makes units for phar-maceutical giants such as Abbott, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, andSanofi-Aventis as well as a growing number of national phar-macy companies that are currently driving the Brazilian market.

Nevermann refers to the Clean Rooms division as an example

PROFILE • DÂNICA CORPORATION

INDUSTRY TODAY 161

of the technological value that Dânica provides, “Traditionally,pharmaceutical companies’ plants were built with drywall (withStyrofoam thermal insulation), now with our market penetrationsuch plants have been transitioning market toward modular,polyurethane panels.” The modular solution provided by thecompany is particularly vital in the pharmaceutical arena.“There is a higher risk of contamination with drywall,” explainsNevermann. “The modular solution is safer and cleaner, and wecan sell it at the same price as drywall.”

In most places in the world, polyurethane would be 25 percentmore expensive than Styrofoam, he explains. “But with ourstrategy of setting up low-cost plants in emerging markets, wesell modular solutions at the same price as drywall. If clientscan buy the ‘Volkswagen’ or the ‘Mercedes’ at the same price,they go with the ‘Mercedes,’ or the modular solution.”

The results speak for themselves: When Dânica’s clean roomsentered the pharmaceutical market in Brazil in 2002 around 90 percent of plants were made from drywall. Today, 90 percent are modular, and 70 percent of the clean room struc-tures have been supplied by Dânica. “In essence, we pushed abetter product at a lower cost in an emerging market and, in theprocess, transformed the market demand with our technology,” adds Nevermann.

Dânica produces all panels, chemical formulating, doors,hinges, windows, erection accessories and electrostatic painting,internally. “The fact that we’re extremely vertically integratedis a big differentiating factor for clients – and a barrier for com-petitors. Contrary to other parts of the world, turnkey solutionsare still very rare in the Brazilian market. Most big companiesin this segment are content to just build and deliver panels.”

FREEZING OUT COMPETITIONDânica produces 33 million square feet of panels and 15,000doors a year, equating to 5,000 to 6,000 medium to large-sizedbuildings. However, the company’s production capacity is actu-ally double this, ensuring substantial potential for the future andcompetitive advantage.

Market response to the turnkey concept has made the clientsmore demanding. This is good news for Dânica, whose interestin developing the Brazilian market is not merely the result of recent economic surge. “Once you are constructing insteadof just manufacturing, the business becomes much more complex. Manufacturing the same panel every day is quite easy,but in construction there are so many variables that could gowrong. Unlike the many international companies that now wantto move to Brazil, we have spent years setting up this structure,”confirms Nevermann.

With 36 years of experience in the market, Dânica’s value-proposition spans project design, manufacturing, and installa-tion. The vertically integrated company offers fully engineeredturn-key solutions across all cost-spectrums, depending on theclient’s individual needs.

Dânica’s mission to continue expanding into a global leaderthrough continuous investment is well on track. With an unbeat-able service and complete thermal insulation solutions, the com-pany is proving time and time again that the best answer tochilled storage construction needs is Dânica.•

DÂNICA CORPORATION • PROFILE

Pictured: Dânica’s cold stores and clean rooms are custom built to suitcustomer requirements and specifications.

Congratulations Dânica, Art Luz isproud to be a part of your successin the thermal insulation industry.

Manufacturing fluorescent lighting, one of its most important customersand partners is Dânica Termoindustrial Brasil Ltda.

Art Luz has been developing special products for Dânicaʼs clean roomapplications for more than 10 years.

Art Luz is a traditional company operating for more than 50 years in the

Latin-American lighting industry.

R. João Pimentel, 23 - Guarulhos, SP - Brazilwww.artluz.com.br