For the first time, AVI LATINOAMÉRICA magazine presents the ranking with the 50 most important companies in Latin America according to the number of events held in 2014.
By Richard Santa
The economic growth that most of the countries of the region have had in recent years, as well as the improvement in security issues of others that a decade ago few dared to visit, has allowed the growth in the number of special events, congresses and concerts in Latin America. The list of Latin countries that are included in the tours is getting bigger.
This positive outlook has allowed the increase of rental & staging companies in the region. Likewise, it has demanded a higher quality in the services and a constant updating of the audiovisual equipment. This is highlighted by entrepreneurs in the sector, such as Alejandro Carvajal of the company Comunicaciones Globales, which provides in-house rental services in 20 hotels in Central America with a combined average of 24,000 events per year.
He stressed that with the exception of Nicaragua and El Salvador, which lowered the number of events held a little, in general the countries of the region in which it operates had an increase in the number of events in 2014, with an average of four a day and 25 days a month, in each of the hotels it operates. Added to the external rent to the hotels.
In the same sense, Joaquín Gutiérrez, general manager of Big Video, a company with 22 years in the market that offers audiovisual services to large events in Colombia, spoke. He commented that growth has also marked the emergence of new companies, although not always with the best practices and that end up hurting the market.
Continuous maintenance, a challenge
Constantly mobilizing teams between one event and another, manipulated in many cases by different people in the same event, make maintenance, repair and change of equipment one of their fundamental pillars for rental companies.
Martha López, manager of Contacto e, a company that attends corporate events and large shows in Colombia, said that it is easy for the singer to drop a microphone at a concert, packing the musical instruments can take some equipment from the rent or even in the same transport they can suffer damage due to poor handling.
Therefore, within the company they have a department that is dedicated exclusively to the preventive maintenance and repair of the equipment. They also make their own boxes for transporting the equipment and have strict controls to move them from the hold, all in order to protect them.
To have the equipment in good condition, a company must have the commitment of the technical staff that handles them, so that they are careful and are aware of them in each event. That, said Alejandro Carvajal, has been one of the factors that has most influenced the good condition of the equipment within the company, because it has had the commitment of its staff.
Another factor that affects maintenance in rental companies is the after-sales service of some manufacturers. Up to six months can take to arrive a spare part for a piece of equipment because the local distributor does not have it in stock, generating losses for rental companies that must have a piece of equipment without service.
The cost, the cost, the cost...
Generating sensations, living experiences out of the ordinary, are some of the reactions sought by those who organize an event for their guests and attendees, either in the corporate or a show. The client always wants the latest in technology, to live up to the events he attends, but he is not always willing to pay for them.
According to Joaquin Gutierrez, having state-of-the-art technology at an event can be expensive for a medium or small company. But it's not always by budget. In many cases, event organizing agencies lower budgets to satisfy the client and then pretend to have the best at minimal cost.
The challenge, according to Alejandro Carvajal, is to maintain a balance between the cost that customers can afford and the service with the best possible technology. And that balance sometimes does not allow to have the latest technology, obviously guaranteeing a good quality of equipment and service.
The increase in the number of events in Latin America and the cost of audiovisual rental services has also generated another phenomenon in the region. The emergence of companies that acquire equipment and rent at below-average costs, in order to win customers. Joaquín Gutiérrez pointed out that rarely these companies achieve a break-even point and quickly close, but they do leave a damage in the market, because the client will continue to look for low prices even if the service is not the best.
And although these are just some common factors in the day to day in rental companies, there is no doubt that this is one of the segments within the audiovisual industry that has most marked the growth in recent years and with positive prospects for the coming times.
Multilatinas
An important aspect of the rental & staging companies in Latin America is the expansion they have been having in the region. There are many cases in which companies operate in different countries in addition to the one in which they were born.
Among the examples is the Colombian Plataforma, which has a presence in Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, the Dominican Republic and which for 2015 plans to expand to the rest of Central America. Argentina's Proyecciones Digitales is a company that has a presence in 12 countries and serves services to some of its clients in South Africa and Australia.
The union of companies in this sector is also counted. Last year Chile was the scene of the union of two of the most important companies in that country and that have a regional presence: RLA and SAV. Another case was that of AVI SPL, a North American company with a strong presence in Mexico that was acquired in 2014 by Encore, taking its name from the latter.
TOP 50 Latino rental companies
For the first time, AVI Latin America magazine presents a ranking with the 50 rental companies in Latin America that played a leading role in 2014, in order to make visible the achievements of companies working every day for the growth of the sector.
To achieve this ranking we made a prior consultation with manufacturers, distributors and professionals with extensive knowledge in the sector, from each of the four regions: Mexico, Central America, Andean Region and Southern Cone, information with which we managed to identify the meritorious companies of being within the ranking.
For the choice and positioning in the ranking, a collection of information was made from each of the companies, in aspects such as the years of existence, the number of employees and the number of events held in the last year.
It was this last fact that allowed us to position companies in the ranking in each of the regions. Thus, we present the 15 most important companies in Mexico, the 10 in Central America, 15 in the Andean Region and 10 in the Southern Cone.
We emphasize that the list included contact information for each of the 50 companies, as well as the number of events and the country where each of the companies listed in the ranking develops its business.
