INDUSTRIA BRASILEIRA DE GASES LTDA. (IBG) was established in 1992 in Brazil to produce and distribute industrial and medical gases like oxygen, nitrogen, argon, as well as acetylene, nitrous oxide and speciality gases.
The company’s main headquarters and production facilities are located in Jundiai, 40 Km from São Paulo city. The local production complex consists of two air separation plants, an acetylene plant, a nitrous oxide plant, a speciality gases unit and a cylinder filling and distribution centre. From these facilities they offer a range of services to mostly medical gas users.
Building on these foundations the company has plans to expand its capacity and capabilities and is soon starting another ASU in Goiânia, close to Brasilia. This will give them the honour of becoming the first gas company to produce air gases in the country’s central region.
In addition to its uniquely independent production facilities, IBG also boasts its own distribution fleet, and this advantage allows them to supply another fourteen filling stations. These operations are strategically placed, allowing IBG to cover many of the major cities throughout the country. Customers for these services include Alstom, Medical Saude, Grupo AMESP, Iharabaras and Elekeiroz.
Today, IBG has 240 employees and is the only independent gas company currently operating in Brazil, holding approximately 3 percent of the local gas market. Their revenues reflect this not insignificant share of the market, with growth being seen in sales through both strategic branch placement and improvement in their logistics system they say.
The Brazilian industrial gas market is a very competitive environment, with all the major global players present in the region for many years. However IBG have worked hard to get a hold in the market and have operated within their niche for fifteen years. The organization started with filling operations using surplus oxygen bought from steel mills but has certainly come a long way.
The secret to their success? They say that their strict reinvestment and cost control policy has been key, and this careful management has withstood IBG’s continuous growth. Furthermore, they understand the importance of customer perception, especially in a huge territory like Brazil.
Newton de Oliveira, founder and president of IBG explains, $quot;Size matters, and the opportunities for a company like ours was to become big, but first big in quality and customer service$quot;. This need for quality is the driving force behind IBG, explains the company, saying the company’s continuous growth has been pushed by providing the best products and support services they can.
With this goal of high class output achieved, IBG are now looking to their bigger aspirations as Mr de Oliviera explains. He says, $quot;Time has come to focus our strategy on the development of own technical solutions, to satisfy those market demands more suitable to the size of our company.$quot;
Looking at what happens next they are not yet thinking of moving beyond their home market. However, they say that there is still much to be achieved there. In fact their eventual goal is, $quot;to become the best gas company in Brazil.$quot;
A noble endeavour but they recognize there are hurdles they must overcome to meet this goal. What can stand in their way? New challenges facing the company include increased pressure to reduce carbon emissions, and this is a key driver to the company’s ongoing strategy. They are keen to look to the future in this area and believe that cleaner and more reliable energy sources will be a growing market and so have made hydrogen supply a priority. Also related to the same developments IBG has signed research and development ventures with local and foreign entities to develop on-site solutions for fuel cells and the future automotive market.
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