Author: Viviane Ávila

Source: DCI (SP) - 27/07/2010

SÃO PAULO - The informal market continues to grow and already has a turnover of almost R $ 600 billion, equivalent to 18,5% of Brazil's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The amount, considered alarming for the economy and one of the biggest direct enemies of formal retailing, is also the reason why some manufacturers have created projects engaged in supporting and encouraging formality for micro and small entrepreneurs, as well as consumer reeducation to purchase products of legal origin.

This is the case of the company Coletek, which guarantees to be considered one of the largest manufacturers of peripherals, electronics and game accessories in the country, which has just opened its first showroom on Rua Santa Ifigênia, in the center of São Paulo, a region that is an icon of electronic commerce in the capital of São Paulo and from where a good part of products of this segment are sold to consumers and resellers from all over Brazil.

The location was not chosen by chance. According to Charles Blagitz, Marketing Manager at Coletek, the main objective of the company is to start a real campaign in the region, to support formal trade, especially with regard to tax legalization and the origin of products. So much so that the space of almost 400 square meters, according to Blagitz, is not a simple store with showcases for presenting products and launches.

The store has on its upper floor an auditorium with 150 seats where the company will offer free lectures and workshops for the re-education and awareness of the final consumer in relation to the consumption of illegal merchandise. "Tempted by lower prices, many times the customer does not realize that the cheap is much more expensive than he expects", reflects the manager. He stresses the importance of changing the consumer's mentality to demand invoices at the time of purchase, mainly because otherwise the product's origin is not known, nor can it be proven, in addition to other problems, such as expiration date, conditions of unknown maintenance and no warranty.

In addition to the formal trade awareness project, the showroom is a strategic point for customers to get to know the product portfolio, as well as experiment and give their opinion.

Assistance

The company, which has been in the market as a manufacturer and distributor for 8 years in an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) system, an expression used to classify products assembled by the company and sold to distributors who put their brand on sale, created two own brands two years ago: C3 Tech, Evercool and Plus Cable. With the creation of its own brands, Coletek, which grows 150% per year, plans to export 10% of all production to Mercosur.

“C3 Tech is our flagship. In 2008, it made up 2% of revenue. Last year it reached 28% and this year it is 48% of production ”, celebrates Blagitz.

As a consequence, the company announces for this second semester of 2010 the opening of a technical assistance network, which will directly serve the end user. The objective is to provide a more agile and personalized service to the consumer in more than 70 service points throughout the country.

According to Charles Blagitz, the action also aims to reduce the burden on resellers, since the number of occurrences received by them will also drop considerably, since the user will have the option to seek assistance directly from Coletek.

Tax incentive

Despite the alarming panorama of informality, according to Roberto Ordine, vice president of the São Paulo Commercial Association (ACSP), today, even though the informal market index is high, Brazil has one of the most sophisticated tax systems in the world.

“The entrepreneur who starts with this mentality of evading taxes and working informally is investing in a business that was already born dead. It does not prosper, nor does it survive in the world of entrepreneurship ”, believes Ordine.

The specialist in the retail sector also said that the city of São Paulo has been working in this direction to make entrepreneurs aware of formality, with projects such as the Individual Microenterprise Program (MEI), for example, which exempts the micro company from paying taxes when the turnover does not exceed R $ 36 thousand per year, or other tax incentives for companies whose annual turnover is less than R $ 240 thousand. The almost R $ 600 billion of informal trade in 2009 - according to André Franco Montoro Filho, president of the Brazilian Institute of Ethics in Competition (Etco), an entity that together with Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) carried out the research that concluded the amount - it is a value that, in addition to being expressive and being outside the formal Brazilian economy, surpasses that of the Argentine economy.

Although surprising, there was a significant improvement in the numbers compared to the last six years, according to data revealed by the study.

From 2003 to 2010, the absolute values ​​that moved the informal market went from 357 billion to R $ 578 billion. However, the Brazilian GDP grew from R $ 1,7 trillion to R $ 3,14 trillion, which, in comparison, led to a drop of 21% to 18,4%.

According to research by the Inter-Union Department of Statistics and Socioeconomic Studies (Dieese), the high level that unemployment has reached in previous years is one of the main reasons that contributed to the growth of informal trade.

Coletek, a manufacturer of peripherals, electronics and accessories for games, opens its first showroom on Rua Santa Ifigênia, with space for lectures against informality.