Brazilian shower grows in Africa

The year was 1927. The First World War had already ended almost ten years ago, and a new global conflict would still take time to happen in 1939. In Brazil, the president was Washington Luiz. Newspapers were growing as a means of communication, as was radio, a novelty invented five years earlier.

In the countryside of São Paulo, in Jaú, a very curious 13-year-old young man who loved messing with electrical paraphernalia would have created the first electric shower. Francisco Canhos worked at his father’s bakery, but took advantage of his free time to perfect his invention. He began to produce the model by hand, whose technology he improved over time, and offered it door-to-door in the city.

It was only in 1943, at the age of 29, that he founded Eletrometalúrgia Jauense, dedicated to the manufacture of Canhos showers for the whole country. The novelty, of simple design -a device that heats water by electric energy, through a resistance- was becoming popular, at the same time that the personal hygiene industry in the United States grew, with the export of soaps, shampoos and toothpastes. Bath time took on another meaning in post-World War II society.

Almost one hundred years after the first tests of Canhos, the Brazilian shower industry is dedicated to making the national invention more popular in Africa. The two largest national manufacturers of the device –Lorenzetti and Fame– have been increasing exports of the product to countries on the continent.

“It’s the most affordable water heating system in the world, with showers starting at R$40, the price of a pizza”, says Fame’s export manager, Maria Prado. “We arrived in countries like Sudan, where the poorest people simply didn’t have a cheap alternative to taking a hot shower.”

Despite having pioneered the market in Sudan, Fame had to stop selling locally recently, due to political instability in the country.

But the company remains firm in exports to Ethiopia, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Tanzania and, especially, Kenya. Maria points out that taking the shower to other markets is not an easy task: it involves a change in already established customs. “Especially when it comes to bathing culture, which changes from country to country,” she says.

Kenya is the main market for Brazilian showers on the continent

Kenya is Lorenzetti’s gateway to the continent. “We have a distributor in the country, which sells to several other nationalities, such as Uganda and Angola”, says Eduardo Coli, president of Lorenzetti.

The company, one of the most traditional in the market, earned R$ 2.2 billion last year. “The shower is a cheap, good and economical product, which leaves Brazil for 45 countries”, says Coli.

About 13% of Lorenzetti’s shower production is exported, especially to Latin American countries. “Most of the sales are of cheaper models, in the shape of a bell, which cost between R$ 50 and R$ 80 in Brazil”, says the executive.

According to him, sales on the African continent could be even greater if the price markdown were not so high. “If in Brazil the margin is 50% over the cost of the product, for example, in some African countries it is 100% or 200%”, says Coli, who also complains about Chinese piracy on the continent. “They copy Brazilian models and put any brand to sell in Africa.”

Peru is the world’s largest importer of showers

At Fame, exports represent 7% of revenues, undisclosed. The company’s products abroad also have a greater presence in Latin America.

“Peru is the biggest importer of electric showers in the world, but other important markets are Bolivia, Paraguay, Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Ecuador and Cuba”, says Maria.

African countries are not yet in the focus of Dexco, owner of the Hydra Corona brand. The company informed, in a note, that it is dedicated to the consolidation of the brand in the Americas. Among the main importers are Paraguay, Guatemala, Bolivia, Mexico, Peru and Costa Rica.

The numbers of the shower market in Brazil are not audited. But, according to Lorenzetti, industry leader, sales of showers are around 25 million units per year, which moves just over R$ 3 billion a year in retail.

One of the largest building material retailers in the country, Leroy Merlin, says that in the accumulated period from January to July this year, there was a 2.3% growth in the sale of electronic showers and 33% in the sale of electrical resistances.

“Despite the greater increase in resistances, this is a one-off purchase. We noticed that the exchange of the shower for a better model has increased significantly”, says Jaime Fender, product manager at the retailer.

He points out that showers tend to “burn” more in winter, when they run at full power. It is the main time of year for sale of the category and resistors.

Equipment uses less water, but consumes more energy

“The shower is usually the appliance in the house that consumes the most electricity, but consumes less water, because it has a lower flow”, says Danilo Delmaschio, founder of the company O Empreiteiro.

“The shower, in turn, consumes more water and also requires greater investment in the heating system itself – gas, as is common in Europe, or boiler, as in the United States”, he says. But over time, the investment in the heating system pays off in lower energy consumption, she says.

Delmaschio highlights as ideal the use of the hybrid shower, or flex, which uses electrical energy to heat the water and, when it reaches the desired temperature, it is heated by the gas or solar heater.

Hydra Corona, for example, bets on hybrid digital showers, which cost around R$ 700. In these devices, the user can choose the exact temperature of the bath and the water consumption is controlled.

A technology that Chico Canhos, who died in May 1988, could not even have imagined. The inventor only applied for a patent in the 1940s, but it was too late, other companies were already manufacturing the shower.

In December 1952, Lorezo Lorenzetti –son of the company’s founder, Alessandro– applied for registration with the INPI (National Institute of Industrial Property). The letter patent for the application for “improvement in showers” was not issued until November 1961.

The protection lasted 15 years, expiring in 1976.