Growing with innovation

April 17, 2019

From distributor to manufacturer, Felitron becomes consolidated in the Brazilian market and strengthens its international expansion.

Brazil is known for being a difficult market for entrepreneurship, either because of the often-unstable economic scenario or because of tax policies. Looking more specifically at the area of telecom, there is still a need to keep up with the constant evolution of the sector. Faced with so many challenges, there are few companies that manage to remain active for more than 30 years. And more than that, always innovating. That's what Felitron has been doing in its 39 years of operation. The company has been able to anticipate changes in the market, consolidating its operations in Brazil and making international flights.

Founded in the 80s, Felitron was initially called Fioretti - the surname of founder Giovanni Fioretti. At the time, it was a distributor of parts and components for the telephone industry, a market that was experiencing a boom. However, it was in the 90s that it entered the market in which it would become a benchmark. At that time, she still worked as a successful representative and distributor of professional headphones for major brands. With the boom of call centers in Brazil in the early 2000, the company's logo became "the largest laboratory of technicians specializing in headphone maintenance," says Leonardo Fioretti, Felitron's CEO. "We had maintenance agreements with major call centers such as Atento and Contax, as well as banks, card processors, and many others.", he recalls.

At the same time, the company, already with the name of Felitron - which comes from "Felitto", the name of the town where Giovanni was born - faced some difficulties in obtaining original parts for the maintenance of the headsets, which limited its growth. In addition, the manufacturer of the devices, which dominated the Brazilian market, was American and did not develop products focused on the needs of Latin American companies. "Their strategies and products were aimed at their two major markets United States and Europe, with high prices and no maintenance parts.", adds Leonardo, adding that, although there were national options, the products did not have the same quality and design as the American products.

In 2002, Felitron took its first steps towards manufacturing its own products, and in 2004, it launched its first headset. "I never forget it. Our first production was 50 units, in the first month, with five employees." The bet was on combining products of superior quality with national brands, but at a more affordable price than American brands. "With a quality superior to the national products of the period and innovative design, as well as the fact that we already had contacts with the major call centers, the products were quickly accepted in the market," he points out. The CEO also emphasizes that the strategy was to offer excellent customer service and differentiated services, taking advantage of the fact that Felitron was born lending technical assistance services. "In addition, as we manufacture all our parts in Brazil, we were able to breed products according to the expectations of our Brazilian customers and the major markets in Latin America.

As a result, the portfolio focused mainly on the manufacturing of headsets and grew over the years. Today, there are more than 100 different models. With a DNA of innovation as was customary, the company launched a product every semester. "As we always launched new products or improved existing products, we quickly gained respect from the market." They are headsets for the most diversified applications, from the most basic for office applications to the most sophisticated, used in large call centers, with high complexity. As a result, the company grew by 50% a year from 2004 to 2010.

Also, as a result of this evolution, Felitron began a process of internationalization in 2010, which has gained importance over the last two years. "We are reaching very significant numbers and year on year increasing our share of the market gives Latin America." Currently, our products are already exported to more than 15 countries and the total numbers are already expressive in annual production, especially for countries like Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Peru. Now, the next market is Europe. Presently, Italy and Portugal are receiving the company's portfolio of products and services.

ALWAYS EVOLVING

Faced with this constant growth, Felitron expanded its factory in 2018 and again in 2023, located in the south of São Paulo. Certified IS0 9001 in 2008 and in the process of renewing its certification, it keeps ALWAYS EVOLVING. Now it has the capacity to produce more than 300,000 headsets a year. At the same location, the company has a development center with Bruel & Kjaer equipment for research and development of headsets, headphones and audio equipment, following national and international standards. "We also have pre-banding and engineering staff that support our commercial team on projects with strategic clients in Brazil and Latin America." Felitron also has a sales and marketing office located in the south of São Paulo, close to the major players and clients in the telecom and IT market.

In addition, continuing its process of evolution, the company recently launched FLT Lab, a startup focused on IoT, Business Intelligence and Analytics. The IoT Experience is a cloud-based solution that turns the headset into an IoT device. "Today, we participate directly in the customer day. So, as well as supplying headsets, we work with the customer contributing to service and Audio quality, combined with special parameterizations such as mute timing control, connections and disconnections, evaluation of operator performance, reduction of Mean Answering Time, control of inventory, and voice biometrics," explains Leonardo, noting that the feedback received from customers is positive. "Bringing something new that can really contribute to our customers' business is always very rewarding for Felitron."

See also: Bravo USB-C Mono Headset