AD_MAGAZINE_351

31 AutoData | December 2018 M arcopolo won the Producer of Truck and Bus Bodies category of the AutoData Award 2018. And so, the company probably will need to open more space in the trophy gallery: it was the seventeenth in eighteen editions of the award. Francisco Gomes Neto, CEO, affirms that “it is a great satisfaction for us from Marcopolo, for all employees. We won the AutoData Award for the seventeenth time in eighteen editions. This was an intense year, of hard work and growth, and this is why we are very happy with this new recognition from the public. It’s fantastic and it’s always a pleasure for us to participate.” This huge list of victories is not a coincidence: something that Marcopolo does is never lie on its laurels. A proof of that was the operation start, in March, of 25 new bi-articulated buses in Curitiba, PR: the vehicles are state- of-the-art and carry a high level of connectivity. In all, the city is expected to order almost five hundred vehicles until 2020. Regarding results, Marcopolo also seems unbeatable. It closed the first nine months of the year with operational net revenues of almost R$ 3 billion, an increase of 45.5% compared to the same period of 2017. The net income in the same period was R$ 119 million, an expressive increase of 165%, with a net margin of 4%, almost twice bigger that last year. Brazilian revenues totaled R$ 1.4 billion, increase of 82% year-on-year. Brazil’s direct exports totaled R$ 888 million, a 34% increase, while revenues from foreign units reached R$ 657 million, a 10% increase. In 2018, until September, the company sold (in all) 11.5 thousand buses, 50% more than in the same period of 2017. The Brazilian market received 7,5 thousand of them, an increase of 88%, while 2,7 thousand went abroad, 22% more, and the foreign operations - South Africa, Australia, China and Mexico - accounted for the remaining 1.3 thousand. In June, the company announced the opening of a branch in São Paulo (Brazil’s largest bus market) in order to get closer to the state’s transportation operators. The unit, located in Ipiranga neighborhood, in the Capital, has a large built area, parking, workshops, technical training area and waiting room for drivers. “This was an intense year, of hard work and growth, and this is why we are very happy with this new recognition from the public. It’s something fantastic for us.” Francisco Gomes Neto, CEO of Marcopolo Rodrigo Otávio Pikussa, who shares the delivery of the award with the CEO Francisco Gomes Neto on page 42