Since the end of July, Juliano Ohta is serving as CEO of Aldo Solar. The transition in management was the result of the acquisition of 100% of distributor by Brookfield, which manages around US$725 billion in assets in more than 30 countries.
Aldo Pereira Teixeira, founder of Aldo Solar, remains an advisor and mentor, in addition to holding a voting seat on the istrative Council.
In light of this change, the Canal Solar held an exclusive interview with Ohta to show what changes are taking place in the company with his arrival, how the arrival of Brookfield reflects on the integrator's life and what the company's expectations are for the coming months.
Among the highlights he highlighted, for example, is the opening of two more CDs (distribution centers) in Maringá (PR) in October, as well as the growth of around 50% in sales for the second half of the year. Check out the full interview below:
What are the main changes being implemented with your arrival at Aldo Solar? What will this hiring bring to the market?
I would say that it all started with the first “marriage” between Brookfield and Aldo Solar, which took place exactly 1 year ago. It is the marriage between a leading company in the solar energy segment, which is Aldo Solar, with a group that is also very successful in some segments, including renewable energy, which is Brookfield.
Brookfield has a presence in several segments: infrastructure, real estate and also in renewable energy with the Elera subsidiary, here in Brazil. They are two very solid companies, so it is a marriage that combines solidity and provides very important security for our customers, which we know is fundamental in this segment.
We cannot forget that all purchases and investments are for decades: We are talking here about generation for 25, 30 years. So it's important to have solid companies, and the marriage between Brookfield and Aldo is perfect because of that.
When I arrived, I had a career based on relationships with customers, employees and partners, because I basically worked in distribution and retail. I had the opportunity to work in several areas, so I ended up learning through interactions with partners, customers and employees.
My arrival here, I think is a perfect marriage because I don't come from the world of solar energy, but I have a lot of empathy with the different players in the segment and I have a great ability to listen. So, what I've been doing a lot since my arrival is listening a lot, trying to bring a little clarity to where matters are a little hazy. I intend to do this more and more abroad, to the market.
The company I came to manage is a rocket. I didn't come here to change the rocket's trajectory much, but rather to give it an additional boost. So, at this first moment, what we have done are some adjustments to these gears, which already work very well, to make them work even better.
To bring more momentum, we are starting with an important action to reinforce the team, including directors, to bring in more people with experience, whether in energy, retail or specific areas, so that we can not only serve this market that is here , but also find new avenues of growth for ourselves and our integrator customers.
One of the first actions we took to oil these gears was the very strong investment in production capacity. To give you an idea, today, just here at our headquarters, we have the capacity to dispatch a thousand generators per shift.
Furthermore, in October we are opening two more distribution centers here in Maringá as well, with the same size as the first. Thus, we are almost tripling our storage capacity. Logically, when the need arises, we will also expand production capacity.
In this way, by reinforcing the team, placing a little more control, governance and compliance here in the processes, we are making significant progress. It's a time to listen a lot, make this a permanent practice, visit customers more. And we have already built a strategic plan for the future.
Today, we view Aldo as an importer and distributor of photovoltaic kits. But what about beyond that? How does the arrival of Brookfield reflect on the life of the integrator who looks to Aldo for a product to sell to their end customer?
What I usually say is that neither Aldo, nor the integrators and other stakeholders in this segment can have a very closed view of this market. Here we talk a lot about selling solar energy generators, but firstly, we need to look at this segment as one of energy generation, consumption and management.
This greatly expands what we do and the possibilities of the future. Today, our main business is distribution. We buy, import, assemble the kits and distribute them exclusively to integrators, who are our only channel and we are loyal to them.
We want to continue with this loyalty, as the integrator is our reason for existing. His success is our success, and we want to continue serving and developing integrators so that they are very successful, serve the end customer very well and contribute greatly to the development of solar energy. The role of the integrator and our role is fundamental so that more people have confidence in solar energy, and install more solar energy generation systems.
I even say that we don't sell solar generators, that's a short-sighted view. We have to sell information and trust about solar energy. Thus, we sell other products in addition to generators, and bring more customers, perpetuating the sector.
So, the integrator is the basis of our system, and we need to sell information and trust to the entire Brazil: end customer and integrator. In fact, at Intersolar we had that stand where the main point was the central arena. There, we wanted to show that we were not exposing solar generators, we were exposing content, information and trust. This is the message we need to send. Only in this way will we develop this sector, which will last a long time.
But, returning to your question, when we broaden this scope and start talking about energy generation, consumption and management, we start to talk a lot about the issue of information. We have a partnership with Canal Solar and other influencers, for example, to bring this idea that we need to generate well, consume well, and find the best ways to manage consumption and get a return on investment.
We also get into the aspect of not only selling the system, but also financing it. Brookfield, our owner, just launched a fintech lender, Sol Agora, which is part of our ecosystem. Aldo will have an early preference to offer this tool to our customers.
We are counting on establishing more content partnerships, to solve our weak point, which is the lack of information. We need a sustainable market. We are even looking at acquisitions of other companies, which have other businesses, not necessarily linked to solar energy. This is because we believe that our ecosystem can be huge, not restricted only to distribution and imports.
Many people have questions regarding Aldo's after-sales service. What does Aldo offer the distributor? What are the challenges surrounding this sector and what improvements have been made in this department of the company?
After-sales service is essential. We have an internal and after-sales team, a team that has been structured for many years. We have just appointed someone to lead this team.
Since the beginning, we have had this characteristic of developing long-term partnerships with our suppliers. We have few supplier partners, you can count them on your hands, and in this partnership it is as if we were an extension of them, and they were an extension of Aldo.
This is one of Aldo's strengths, as it gives our customers confidence to invest in the brands we , as they are truly choices made with great care and will last for many years. This allows us to create synergy with our suppliers, to the point where we no longer see the border between suppliers and Aldo.
So, when we talk about Jinko Solar, Growatt, we are talking about Aldo too. In fact, technical assistance from Jinko and Growatt is the same as Aldo. We have a very close collaboration, their engineers often serve customers here, in our chair, and we also go there to assist them.
Of course, there are always improvements to make, and now we are improving our system for monitoring. But there is one thing that our customers can always count on: If they have a problem, even if it is already the responsibility of the supplier, it is our responsibility. We assume all responsibilities, and customers can count on us to respond and resolve the issue in the shortest possible time.
One thing that is important to highlight, in this sense of partnerships with suppliers, is that one of Aldo's strengths is this product leadership, something I want to reinforce.
We have long been pioneers in several market trends. And we continue: we have just launched the first s with Jinko's N-Type technology, exclusively for a few months. We brought several new features, for example the tropicalization of inverter lines. We now have Growatt 220 V three-phase inverters, 50 kW, 70 kW and 75 kW for Brazil, also exclusively.
We are bringing several hybrid storage system solutions. Not to mention that today we are practically leaders in inverters and vehicle chargers. Ultimately, it is very important that we continue with this leadership in products.
Another point that we are going to improve more and more is our e-commerce platform, which is super efficient, with an easy quotation system. We will always improve so that customers do not need to leave their home, here at Aldo, to get the best deal and serve customers at the end.
A sensitive point, in which we have many improvements to make, is logistics. We have very efficient production, we ship 1 generator every 2 minutes here. We are aware that logistics in Brazil is a challenge, so we have just hired a new Logistics Director, and we will ensure that our delivery continues to be the best on the market.
We will bring incredible improvements to the end, such as delivery to the customer's home, so that they have greater comfort and convenience in scheduling and monitoring. We will have a lot of news ahead.
And what are your expectations for the next semester? Will Aldo follow what it was from January to June?
We had significant growth. Even though we already have a high sales volume, we grew 77% in the first half of the year, compared to the previous year. We believe that the second half of the year will be strong, following the same trend that has occurred in recent years.
We expect a growth of around 40% or 50% in sales in the second half, compared to the first half. We hope that October, November and December will confirm this trend, but we are very confident, even talking about next year.
We understand that this is a segment that will grow a lot in the coming years, in a very dynamic way for everyone. We also know that the segment has been attracting many new players, some serious, others not so much. What we have to fight for here, we as leaders and you as channels, is to bring quality information so that the market can level up.
We need to seek and sell quality products, encourage quality installation and logistics services. You shouldn't save on such important things. We are talking about a system that will last 30 years, so certain savings are not worth it, such as searching for service providers who are not qualified. It is an economy that will be very expensive in the future.
How do you evaluate the solar energy market since its entry? And based on your retail experience, what are your expectations for the next 5 years?
I see that it is a segment that is already large, and despite being large, it is still an immature segment. I say without value judgment, just because this segment has only been around for a few years, so there is a learning and professionalization curve.
I think it's great for new players to enter. We want to welcome and train new integrators, even competitors, and especially people who have a long-term commitment to the sector. We don't want adventurers, we want people who do serious work and deliver on their promises, so that end consumers don't lose trust in our sector.
If we can establish this, we have inexhaustible potential. Today, we have around 1 million 200 thousand systems installed, in distributed generation alone. There are millions of roofs where we can place new generation systems, so it is as if 90% of the market has not yet been explored.
I believe that the segment will bring what the world asks for, which is sustainability. We will be responsible for generating clean energy, in this fight to decarbonize the world, the environment, companies and especially homes, which is where we touch most directly.
I'm very excited and I hope that we can, together with you from the media and even our competitors, in a broad way for the development of the sector, develop a market that has brought us even more pride for 5 years. I ed this segment 4 months ago and I'm already immensely proud, imagine 5 years from now, after we've built so much together.
In fact, I would like to reinforce: we are not talking about a consumer good, it is a durable good. Everyone needs to choose well, be it the integrator, the supplier or the distributor, thinking about whether it will be here in the next 30 years. And I can guarantee you: Aldo Solar will be here in the next 30, 40 years, for sure.
To conclude, what message do you have for the integrator, for the Aldo customer who is watching this interview? What can they expect from Aldo in the coming months? What changes will it impact and, above all, what is your final message for these people?
I want to reinforce the message I said at the beginning: the integrator is the reason for our existence. The integrator's success will be our success. We see no other way than this through the integrator. This is a characteristic of Aldo that I want to maintain, with great strength and loyalty to the integrator.
I would like to hear more and more from the integrator, and we will open more and more communication channels for this. I would like to ask the integrators to us, me personally if necessary, through social networks, email, telephone, in person if they want to come here at Aldo. We will also visit you more and more.
As I said, in addition to oiling the Aldo machine, we will bring even more advantages. Our goal is to make life easier for the integrator, and most importantly: we want to bring more business to our partner integrators, so that they can develop their company, their business and their lives as a whole. This is our motto, being this company of trust and solidity, so that it can be counted on in 30, 40 years.
