When Thor Granitos — now the largest industrial exporter of processed granites in Latin America — first opened its factory doors in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1986, a relatively small staff was employed to handle the daily operations of its 490,000-square-foot facility. A little more than 12 years later, in 1999, the company was experiencing tremendous growth and development, and it made the decision to close down its Rio factory and relocate more than 12 hours north to Barra de São Francisco, Espirito Santo, in order to be more cost-effective and better serve its universal market.
The relocation, which was finalized last year, was the largest expansion project Thor Granitos has ever undergone. “In 1999, the initial idea was to send the cut slabs to the Rio factory, but in order to be more cost-effective, we took advantage of the recession [in 2006] and decided to shut down the entire factory and expand, concentrate and consolidate,” said sales manager João Guilherme Petrelli. “We finished the move at the end of 2012, and last year [2013], we added some more brand new machinery — mostly multi-wire saws. Now, we are still adding some new machinery, such as the microwave system and two more polishing machines.”