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«Brasilata» market leader in Paint cans
Without doubt, Brasilata is the largest paint container manufacturer in Brazil with three plants and around 900 employees. Founded in 1955 and based in Sao Paulo, they immediately focused on original can designs rather than follow the conventional route of their competitors. In the last 10 years Brasilata doubled its turnover and achieved sales of 70 million cans and a steel consumption of 40,000 tonnes in the year 2000.
«Plus Closure» – a new closure ring design
The company's profile shows a strong emphasis on innovation and quality that distinguishes them from the competition. All three plants are ISO 9002 certified and their products have been honoured with virtually all of the Brazilian packaging awards and some of the most important international awards as well.
«We have 900 inventors in our company! For the last 13 years we have encouraged all our employees to participate fully in the company’s development programmes», stressed Antonio Carlos Teixeira Álvares, Chief Executive Officer of Brasilata. This policy has enabled them to develop «bottom up» innovative packaging concepts and Brasilata launched their first «Open Closure», a tamper proof opening system followed by the «Plus Closure» system in 1995. This original concept consists of a new closure ring design achieving higher internal pressure resistance, almost three times higher resistance to impact damage and lower opening torque. Additionally, with the new ring system, Brasilata was able to obtain considerable metal savings.
ICI and Sherwin Williams, market leaders in the paint industry, very quickly adopted the system and as a result Brasilata doubled their market share in many major market segments. More than 120 million cans have been produced to date and patents registered in Europe and the USA.
More recently, and in co-operation with ICI, the «Biplus Lid» was introduced in the Brazilian market and the impact on sales is positive.
Brasilata Biplus - ease of handling
This unique idea consists of a transparent plastic insert in the steel lid permitting the customer to see the exact shade of the paint in the can. In the event of a specific colour match being required, colour mixing can be carried out by removing the transparent window and adding a colourant. The window has an opening device incorporated in the design. Following mixing, the new shade can be viewed and compared without opening the can. Ease of handling and being able to see the contents have been crucial elements in the marketing success of the Brasilata «Biplus» concept.The most recent development in Brasilata’s series of inventions is the Plus UN can. The very strict UN recommendations for transport of hazardous goods led to a constant search for better paint can performance and the new construction of ring profiles with matching lids have been an important breakthrough. The Plus UN can won the Prototype Silver Award in the category «Dangerous goods transportations» at the recent Cannex Awards
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