This news article was originally written in Spanish. It has been automatically translated for your convenience. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace a human translator. The original article in Spanish can be viewed at Entrevista a: Víctor Oliveira, administrador y director general de Moliporex

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Interview a: Victor Oliveira, administrator and CEO of Moliporex

15/03/2005

"This new reality points to a need for systematic innovation, optimisation of process and commercial aggressiveness"

On the walls in bright colors of the plant of Moliporex in Marinha Grande you can read quotes of famous writers such as Victor Hugo that in some way summary this company moldista company's philosophy. Structured with good taste, each Department of the plant maintains a focus on design thanks to Victor Oliveira, administrator and CEO of Moliporex.

When and how to create Moliporex?

The Vangest group is a business group that currently adds 16 companies that respond in an integrated manner to a philosophy of complementarity to the complete cycle of the product development. Taking culture based on the plastic by inherence to the fact that we originally exclusively moldistas, today Vangest group has a unique transverse offer from design to the piece of plastic engineering, prototyping and mold prototype or mold production.

Founded in 1986 the group now has 250 employees direct crossing to subcontracting projects and their specialties in a network of partners qualified and approved according to the most high quality parameters.

What kind of moulds are manufactured?

Offering a wide range from highly technical moulds up to large moulds, Vangest group is prepared to respond to needs of large projects from the automotive industry to consumer goods, electrical appliances, packaging and electronics, among others.

Which sectors it directs your product?

The main sectors that we today are the automotive, electronics, household appliances and packaging.

In each sector demands are very different...

Yes. What makes the difference is essentially the level of project and the culture of the company's quality that can be adapted to different types of moulds regardless of the sector for which it is intended. This philosophy enables us to develop and manufacture moulds for different sectors in response to the highest levels of demand.

How has the Portuguese moldista industry evolved?

The evolution of the sector and in particular that of our company is intended to offer increasingly more transversal increasing added value. In fact our group has been transforming in the past six years from a conventional moldista to an entity with the ability to offer an integrated service to the global market. By this logic we continue believing that inter-firm cooperation is essential, considering that the client and the supplier have to assume more and more an attitude of partnership and cooperation.

What threats faced by the sector today?

The sector is facing threats increasingly more evident related to the price and time of execution. This new reality points to a need for systematic innovation, of soptimización process and aggressive commercial repositioning an industry so far devoted exclusively to respond to a timely need for the development of a product cycle, and now has to increase the value of its offer.

How is your machine park?

In our workshops in Portugal we currently have nine high speed of 3 to 5 axes machining centers up to 3,600 mm travel All of them are brand Deckel Maho home German.

In addition to these, we have a machine of wire EDM of Agie, Fanuc, penetration and thread Charmille Park.

We also have the typical equipment of conventional milling rectification, quality control, reverse engineering (digitized laser), presses for adjustment and injection moulds produced test machine.

In addition, we have internally exclusively devoted to the rapid prototyping machines - 1 machine STL, 3 machines for production of moulds of silicone, 1 machine of RIM, Department of painting of prototypes between other complementary means. We have a machine fuel transfer Engel for the testing of our molds.

It is important to offer services of ingeneiría?

Our activity is strongly founded and is based on engineering. Engineering understand mold draft, but also and mainly of piece. This is one of the aspects in which we have a strong commitment, more and more us involved with our clients on the part of design, engineering, prototyping and moulding.

Systems of CAD/CAM/CAE we use are mainly Catia and Unigraphics, trying to adapt the system we use to the requirements of the customer and the particularity of each project. In the field of CAD, CAM and CAE today have a total of 93 posts.

In this line, they build special moulds?

We develop solutions tailored to the customer even if they are not standard or are not available in the market regardless of the level of complexity.

For which geographical markets do they work?

We work for: Benelux, Brazil, Canada, Spain, Finland, France, Germany, England, Iran, Israel, Mexico, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and EE.UU. In Brazil we also have a workshop of molds that works primarily for the automotive industry.

The Spain market today accounts for 10% of our turnover.

How was the year 2003 for Moliporex?

It was a year of evolution at the level of growth, important in the line of cooperation with our customers and at the level of development of integrated solutions to what has allowed us to grow in a year of economic decline.

Where it believes that it should move to be more competitive?

The quality is today a key factor in the supply of any company in this business area. We continue to believe our integrative strategy is fundamental in the way that we determine to follow.

The "time to market", i.e., the time shorter than the market requires to get out more and more products with also shorter life cycles, today makes us ask ourselves seriously the optimization and reengineering of processes and mediathat they allow us to continue and consolidate our position as market leader.