Brazil 2014 World Cup has surpassed revenue expectations, says official

Brazilian micro and small enterprises and individual micro entrepreneurs totaling 43,910 will generate R$ 500 million in revenue, top Brazilian business executive, Luiz Barretto has said.

Barretto said in a statement in Rio de Janeiro on Monday that these were companies which participated in the “2014 Project’’.

The business executive is the president of the Brazilian Service of Support for Micro and Small Enterprises (Sebrae).

He said

Sebrae was launched in 2011 to help local businesses capitalise on the 2014 FIFA World Cup to generate R$ 500 million in revenue.

“We had expected (small enterprises to generate) half a billion reais.

“That mark was surpassed this week and we will present the final balance after the World Cup. It is a success,” said Barretto.

“Sebrae `scored a lot of goals’ in the tournament and will continue to score after the event. Small businesses won this challenge”.

He said Sebrae worked with enterprises which wanted to capitalise on the opportunities presented by the 2014 World Cup to grow during the event and beyond.

Barretto said he had referenced a Rio-based supplier of building materials which, with Sebrae’s assistance, improved its business and earned certifications to provide ramps for the Maracanã Stadium.

The entrepreneur won several major construction contacts afterwards.

“From the group of enterprises which joined the project for the World Cup, more than 10,000 were still with Sebrae, in the pursuit of continuing education,’’ the Sebrae president said.

According to him, with investments from Sebrae, which totalled R$ 90 million in three years, the project gave special focus to businesses in the 12 World Cup host cities.

“We emphasised the idea of ​​having a legacy; to prepare participating companies not only to profit during the Cup, but to be more competitive, to have a higher quality and for these companies to survive in the market that is increasingly competitive,” said Barretto.

“We are confident that these companies which were with us will be more competitive and will survive in the market,” he added.

He said small businesses would make a major contribution of not less than R$ 30 billion to boost the World Cup and invariably boost the Brazilian economy.

Barretto said this was according to a study by the Economic Research Institute Foundation (FIPE), commissioned by the Ministry of Tourism.

FIPE’s projections on the economic impact of the World Cup were based on a study conducted in 2013 on the economic impacts of the FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013, which added R$ 9.7 billion to the Brazilian GDP.

Based on the data, the World Cup was projected to inject three times as much into the Brazilian economy.

To calculate the revenue generated by small businesses, Sebrae, in partnership with Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), mapped nearly 930 business opportunities in the World Cup host cities.

It then determined the requirements companies needed to comply with to market their products.

The market sectors with the greatest development during the project were the construction, tourism and services sectors.

Companies from other sectors also joined the project.

They are in the creative economy, handicraft, woodwork and furniture, food production, information and communication technology, fashion (textiles and clothing, leather and footwear, gems and jewelry) and retail sectors.

(NAN)