The Libson Group announced an investment of $180 million in a new oven production line for its Nueva Neba brand. It should be remembered that the Neba factory in Catamarca had closed its doors in June 2019.

Cristian Alfaro, Commercial Director for Argentina and Southern Cone at the Libson Group, spoke about the importance of this investment in these complex times that the country is going through and analyzed the future of the company taking into account the damages caused by the pandemic.

Why was it decided to invest $180 million in this complicated time? Why was this new line of products chosen?

The Libson Group has 50 years in the industry. It employs 520 people and has 4 industrial plants. Investment as such is part of a development process that is part of the DNA of a company that wishes to grow and project itself continuously in order to increase and value assets, generate genuine employment and continue consolidating an industrial structure beyond the vagaries of the domestic economy.

Likewise, we constantly investigate the market – in this case of household appliances – where we find opportunities to position ourselves with new developments that the market demands. There is much to do and improve in this segment. We have decided to invest in this new product line – electric ovens – because we see that it is a category that has grown significantly in recent years. We even believe that it is a more versatile piece than a microwave, it consumes much less energy than a conventional oven and cooks in the same way that the latter does. We believe that the world is increasingly moving towards more and more versatile behavior and this type of product is precisely what it brings with it versatility to the lives of all of us.

How much do you expect to be able to produce?

Nueva Neba, which today produces nearly 90 thousand units annually between refrigerators and freezers, will add to its family of appliances, the most complete line of electric ovens in the country with 18 models in 4 different sizes (22, 35, 52 and 70 liters), which are produced entirely in Argentina and are characterized by their design, variety of sizes and colors. The products will be marketed mainly in appliance stores and retail chains throughout the country through a strong commercial strategy. Only for the manufacture of electric ovens, the company acquired a fully robotic, state-of-the-art Italian automated line (Euromac) that allows the manufacturing of ovens to be optimized to reach 12 thousand units per month.

To launch this new line of products, the company added more capital and expects to produce more than 100 thousand ovens by the end of the year, which together with the production of refrigerators and freezers, dryers and a heating line, will allow them to increase turnover to $6 billion as an Industrial Group and increase participation in the consumer, medium and low-middle segments.

How did the possibility of recovering that factory that closed in mid-2019 arise?

One of the companies in our group produces extruded sheets for refrigeration in General Rodriguez and Nueva Neba was one of our clients. At that time the company was facing serious difficulties in operating and we decided to enter into a negotiation process with the possibility of recovering the factory. Not only have the jobs in danger at that time been recovered, but the productive capacity of our plant in Catamarca has tripled. Neba today holds 5% of the national refrigerator market and 15% of well freezers.

How did the pandemic affect the company? How did you cope with the difficulties?

Nueva Neba was closed for 2 months, when we reopened it we tried to get our product line fully operational as soon as possible, but then we were seriously affected like the entire national industry with the supply of raw materials and the strong increases. That said, what we did was reconvert production in our plants during the pandemic, we began producing masks, rugs, alcohol dispensers and other Covid 19 materials. Now we are slowly returning to pre-2020 production levels.

What expectations does the Libson Group have for the future?

We seek to recover from the impacts we had in 2020 within the framework of COVID. Develop new product lines under the Nueva Neba brand in our 2 plants located in Catamarca where today we produce refrigerators, freezers and dryers and in La Tablada where we will produce our ovens and heat fans.

We will consolidate, improve and restyling the refrigerator category and focus on growing the production of freezers.

What do you think the country is missing to continue improving economically and for there to be more investments?

What we are saying is not new and I think it is the answer that any businessman will give. Trust, credibility, clear rules of the game and lower tax and fiscal pressure. Today there are many entrepreneurs who want to continue investing and providing work to Argentines and to do so we need to work freely and in predictable scenarios.

Roberto A. Maidana / Perfil.com