News

Carvajal's B2Bportales partners with Brazil's Lund Publishing Group

Sao Paulo (August 15, 2007). The Carvajal Organization, a Latin American multinational that operates in 18 countries, has just completed negotiations to acquire a majority shareholding in the Grupo Lund de Editoras Asociadas (Lund Publishing Group) of Brazil. The association will take place through the B2Bportales Company, which is part of the Grupo Editorial Norma, a member of the Carvajal Organization.

The new association consolidates Carvajal's growth within the business publications market in Brazil and Latin America. The publishers of the Grupo Lund, with 47 years of experience in the Brazilian market, have 30% of the Business to Business (B2B) magazine and publications market in the industrial area and in retail sales, with three of the sector's most important publications: Supermercado Moderno (Modern Supermarket) magazine aimed at the retail market, and in a joint venture with Thomas International Publishing Co., NEI (Noticiario de Equipamentos Industriais) magazine and the annual Guia-NEI, aimed at the industrial market. These three publications reach 220,000 qualified readers and serve 1,200 advertisers, including Internet and CD-ROM versions.

NEI was launched in 1973 to reach the growing Brazilian industrial segment, through a joint venture between Grupo Lund and Thomas International Publishing Co. Thomas, founded in 1898, is one of the world's most respected B2B publishers, with a presence in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia. The firm is internationally known for its Thomas Industrial Network products (successor to Thomas Register of American Manufacturers), for the Thomas Global Register, and for IEN (Industrial Equipment News) magazine in its US and international versions.

"This union of strengths between B2Bportales, the Grupo Lund and Thomas International Publishing Co. opens a wide range of opportunities for business expansion in Brazil and in the rest of Latin America. It is a perfect marriage between strong, traditional and reliable publishers in the markets where they operate. Through this association, the resulting organization will manage a larger number of B2B publications, which will enable us to expand even more the possibilities for communication and generation of business contacts in the sectors that we serve", explained David Ashe, president of B2Bportales. In addition to the publications in this area that B2Bportales already manages (Metalmecanica, Artes Graficas, Conversión, El Empaque, Tecnología del Plastico, El Hospital, Laboratorio y Analisis, TV y Video, Petróleo Internacional, World Industrial Reporter and Reportero Industrial), Carvajal will be operating in the Latin American market with a total of 14 publications dealing with diverse sectors of industry and trade.

"For the Grupo Lund, a big factor in deciding to create this alliance was the affinity of values and vision in running the business. The two organizations have a proud tradition of ethics and social responsibility while seeking the highest possible quality for their products and services", according to Cody Lund, president of Grupo Lund, now associated with Carvajal. “We see this union as a natural evolution of our 35-year business presence in Latin America, one that provides outstanding opportunities for growth throughout the region,” added John Lindsey, President of Thomas International Publishing Co. “The B2B market grows more and more promising as the provision of services gains ground in the world economy, requiring an ever greater number of associations between companies from different areas. Carvajal in this market acts to provide quality information to foster the success of B2B relationships and the growth of organizations. That is why our alliances place priority on recognized and solid companies like the Grupo Lund, which has been in the Brazilian market since 1960", concluded Ashe.

About the Carvajal Organization
The Carvajal Organization is composed of a series of businesses developed to efficiently address its clients' diverse needs. Today, Carvajal is a Latin American multinational with more than 20,000 employees throughout the world, with operations in 18 countries with plant operations in 9 of them, and which exports products and services to 65 countries. Carvajal is divided into 14 business groups, which include: provision of administrative services and support; products and services for education; database-supported information services, printing, packaging, publishing, internet commerce services and telecommunications. The Organization is present in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, United States, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. In Brazil, Carvajal operates the Publicar company (which publishes telephone directories and yellow pages under the brand names Editel, Listel and Guía Mais), printing company Cargraphics, school supply company Caderbras Bico Internacional, GC2 in the shared service business, and its call center Contact Center Americas.

About the Grupo Lund de Editoras Asociadas
Founded in 1960 and today employing 220 professionals, Grupo Lund's publications have a total readership of 220,000 business decision-makers in the Brazilian market, where it publishes Supermercado Moderno, the leading publication in food and food service retailing, and in partnership with the Thomas International Publishing Company, the Noticiario de Equipamentos Industrias (NEI) products in magazine, printed guide, online and CD formats.

About Thomas International Publishing Company
Thomas International Publishing Company is the international arm of Thomas Publishing Co. LLC, based in New York, USA. Thomas has been active internationally since the early 1970's, launching publishing ventures in Europe, Japan and Brazil, and subsequently in India, Mexico, China, Turkey and other important global markets. The mission of Thomas for over 100 years has been to provide essential product and sourcing information to industrial buyers, first in print directories and periodicals, and since 1995 over the web. Among the major products of Thomas are ThomasNet, the internet's leading industrial vertical site, providing complete purchasing information about North American suppliers, ThomasGlobal, the international industrial purchasing destination site, Industrial Equipment News (US), the original product news tabloid, Inbound Logistics, the leading publication in the logistics field, Managing Automation, IEN-Europe, Produits Equipements Industriels (France), Technische Revue (Germany), IEN-Italy, IEN-Japan, NEP-Japan and the Thomas Register of Indian Manufacturers (TRIM).

For more information contact:
David Ashe, President & CEO, B2Bportales, Inc., dashe@b2bportales.com
Robert Macody Lund, General Manager, Grupo Lund de Editoras Asociadas, rml@lund.com.br
John Lindsey, President, Thomas International Publishing Co., jlindsey@tipco.com