Introduction
With our new company TD S.A., specially dedicated to import and distribute products through department stores and retailers, we are exclusive distributors / importers of the IRobot Company www.irobot.com, their most reknown product is the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner. We are very happy to report very strong sales in the first months; the figures surpassed IRobot ® and our expectations!
Because of this successful launching, we have decided to work exclusively with Falabella (Biggest Retailer in Latin America (Yearly Revenues circa US $10.000 millions and stock capitalization value circa US $ 25.000 millions))
Falabella became our strategic partner in defining how best to introduce this product to the Chilean consumer. We launched firstly in their top 4 highest-grossing department stores in conjunction with product placement on their website/ internet (website sales have been positive). Now we have opened other 6 stores completing 11. Because of such a strong reception to this product, Falabella-Sodimac has already asked us to work with them in Argentina, Colombia, and Peru. We are very excited about this prospect of growth and are presently reviewing and considering their offer.
As our contacts are very strong and solid with the heads of the Department Stores and Home appliance stores, the timing and the opportunity seem to be just right in introducing to Chile new products and brands. As our strategy, our starting point would be within the Chilean market followed by representation in Argentina, Peru and Colombia. We also have very strong ties to the owner’s of the other bigger Department stores, another option for entering the Chilean Market. We certainly believe that Chile is ready for that.
Due to the fact that Chile is by far the most open, stable and dynamic economy in Latin America it has become an attractive place for foreign investors who are looking for new markets.
Those companies have active presence and leadership in other southamerican markets, as an example, Falabella, the largest department store and retail company from South America. (www.falabella.com), with leading presence in Chile, Perú, Argentina and Colombia; (also owners of Homecenter Sodimac –home appliance stores www.sodimac.com) Cencosud (www.cencosud.cl) (Chile, Argentina, Perú, Brasil, Colombia); Ripley (www.ripley.cl) (Chile and Perú). Also in the supermarket industry, the Chilean company D&S (www.dys.cl), was recently acquired by Walmart).
Our family has participated in the development of several real estate projects through Froimovich Constructora and Paz Froimovich, one of leading real estate companies in Chile , in the residential, office building and business store fields.
Together with local partners we have participated in projects in Argentina ( Buenos Aires ) and the United States ( Miami ).
We wanted to diversify in our business projects and therefore we are interested and actively seeking in acquiring other representations where we can make significant contributions.
We believe that making an effort with regard to prices, comprehension and adaptation to the local culture, as well as commercial support, it might be a successful experience to start doing business in Chile and then expand to the rest of Latin America .
Some of our products
ROOMBA®
The Roomba is an autonomous robotic vacuum cleaner sold by iRobot. Under normal operating conditions, it is able to navigate a living space and its obstacles while vacuuming the floor. The Roomba was introduced in 2002;[1] as of December 2010, over 5 million units have been sold. Several updates and new models have since been released that allow the Roomba to better negotiate obstacles and optimize cleaning.
SCOOBA®
Scooba is an automated robotic floor washer produced by iRobot. It was released in limited numbers in December 2005 for the Christmas season at $399.99 USD, with full production starting in early 2006. The company introduced a $299 version, the Scooba 5800, in the second half of 2006.[1]
The Scooba uses a special non-bleach cleaning solution made by The Clorox Company that cleans the floors and prevents rust or skidding and has been nicknamed Scooba juice or the newer Scooba Natural Enzyme cleaning solution. The robot preps the floor by vacuuming loose debris, squirts clean solution, scrubs the floor, and then sucks up the dirty solution leaving a nearly dry floor behind. The robot is safe to use on sealed hardwood floors and most other hard household surfaces, but it cannot be used on rugs. Scooba avoids rugs and stairs, and can clean about 200 square feet (19 m2) on a single tank-load of solution.
The Scooba is the second major commercial product made by iRobot, which popularized vacuum robots with the Roomba. The Scooba is available in over 40 countries
CREATE
iRobot Create is a hobbyist robot manufactured by iRobot that is based on the Roomba platform and was introduced in 2007. However, iRobot Create is explicitly designed for robotics development, rather than simply hacking the Roomba. In place of the vacuum hardware of the Roomba, the Create includes a cargo bay which houses a 25 pin port that can be used for digital and analog input and output. The Create also possesses a serial port through which sensor data can be read and motor commands can be issued using the iRobot Roomba Open Interface protocol.
The platform accepts virtually all accessories designed for iRobot’s domestic robots and can also be programmed with the addition of a small “command module” (a microcontroller with a USB connector and four DE-9 expansion ports).
