Paulo Basílio, born in the Brazilian State of Espírito Santo, takes over as the President of América Latina Logística (ALL) tomorrow, ten years after he was first hired as a financial analyst, with the mission of tackling two main challenges. Apart from growing organically, with the harnessing of more cargo freights for the railroads he manages, he also has the mission of exploring opportunities around the rail network, and with which there are forecasts of increases in income. Around ALL there is another ALL, says the 35-year-old economist, quoting the example that, for every dollar spent on transport in the United States, another two dollars are used with services connected to the segment.
Even though the proportion may not be the same in Brazil, the executive says that there is a new market to be exploited and this shall be targeted by the new management. At ALL we are focused on the first dollar, but there is still a lot of room for growth in services connected to the transport area. Mr Basílio plans to structure, by the end of the year, an operational model to strengthen the activities of the company in retail transport, with the use of containers, which should occur through agreements with partners who can consolidate their cargo freights. He says that currently ALL has 1.5% of the container market in the regions where the company is active, while it has 50% of the agricultural and 20% of the industrial market. He also mentions storage, sterilization and also the expansion of the services in the terminals as examples of what is still to come. He is also looking into solutions for the transport of the iron ore which is currently being exploited in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul.
Mr Basílio was only 24 years old, with two years’ experience as a consultant under his belt, when he was recruited by Bernardo Hees, who had preceded him in the job and gone on to a new job at Burger King, acquired by Brazilian investors. Then he went through the industrialized products, operational planning and financial manager positions, until he became Superintendent in December. As the transition process was then under way, having started at the beginning of the year, he felt at ease to cast aside the discourse of continuity of the work that was being done up to then, without first explaining the reason : the way of conducting business is the same, but it is the company that is going through a different moment.
The track records of the two previous Presidents are used as an explanation. Alexandre Behring, who was President between 1998 and 2004, was responsible for recovering company pride, establishing a team and presenting results in a company which had just been privatized. During this period, he entered the Argentinean market (1999) and also purchased logistics company Delara (2001). Mr Hees, who stayed at the job between 2005 and 2010, also advanced in business management and also made ALL’s most important purchase, that of Brasil Ferrovias, in 2006. He led the team through a cost-slashing and results-seeking process in the new company, without taking his eyes off the currently existing operation.
Mr Basílio worked together with Mr Hees to present ALL to investors during the launch of the company shares, in 2004, and then spent a year in Campinas (SP), to organise the structure of Brasil Ferrovias. Asked if, based on the previous track record, he would have five or six years in command at ALL before being elected to the Board and, just like his predecessors, take on a position in another country, he does not talk about the matter. However, he says it is only natural for there to be cycles of renewal as the company has a lot of young workers on the team. He says he does not believe in a career plan. The people who I saw grow most are those which have shown less concern about this issue.
Over the last few months, Mr Hees and Mr Basílio have started to sign texts jointly and the directors were already reporting to the successor, but there was no mention of an official date for a change in administration. The two men would also visit shippers, investors and also press organizations. Last week, the meeting which the company calls the desire meeting was held, when ideas are put forward and discussed for the following year. Mr Hees opened the meeting, and one can also say that on that very same day he passed the baton, as that very same week the purchase of Burger King was announced officially.
The integration of the former Brasil Ferrovias took three years. We started 2010 with the company in good shape and, at least in my head, the new challenges are clear, he says.
In his opinion, the current capital structure of the company allows the exploitation of new business. ALL can therefore take a larger leap to become a more comprehensive logistics platform. The strengthening of intermodality is not a new plan, he says, but was somewhat frozen because there were other priorities under way. In any connection, there is an enormous number of lorries and also other services that ALL could be offering to meet intermodality, he says. There are opportunities for value outside pure rail travel. Mr Basílio does not rule out further purchases, either, and says that investments shall be made to allow the organic growth of volume by more than 10% on the rail platform – the expected investments come to some R$ 700 million per year, while in 2010 this volume should be R$ 1 billion, because of the extension of the rail network, with the connection between Alto Araguaia and Rondonópolis, in the state of Mato Grosso. For strategic projects – containers, terminals, storage and others – he says there shall be specific investments for each case.
Seja o primeiro a comentar