The pyrotechnic sector plans to increase turnover to 19 million euros

The pyrotechnic sector plans to increase sales for this Sant Joan above those registered in 2021, the first in which a certain normality was recovered since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
04 June 2022 Saturday 04:23
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The pyrotechnic sector plans to increase turnover to 19 million euros

The pyrotechnic sector plans to increase sales for this Sant Joan above those registered in 2021, the first in which a certain normality was recovered since the outbreak of the pandemic. If in the previous campaign some 18 million euros in sales were registered, one more than in the last year before the health crisis, in 2019, by 2022 they calculate to reach 19 million euros.

This increase will be possible despite the blockade of the port of Shanghai, in China, which has delayed the shipment of product. Faced with the possibility that it would not arrive until after the verbena, the companies in the sector have tended to hire producers and labor from all over the State, and thus avoid a situation with serious damage to the sellers of firecrackers.

The companies in the sector were already able to celebrate Sant Joan as normal, at the gates of the first removal of the masks in the open air. After a strong shock in 2020, when the pandemic reduced the festival celebrations to a small committee and, therefore, the volume of sales, last year the flight took off again with good results, which are expected to be exceeded this year.

"Sales in 2021 were better than in 2019, and in 2022 we hope that the weather will be with us and they can rise between 5% and 6%, in 2019 sales were 17 MEUR and in 2021 18 MEUR; if we reach this year at 19 million would be perfect," says the president of the Association of Pyrotechnics Manufacturers and Wholesalers of Catalonia, Josep Maria Vilardell.

"The Chinese product always arrives between the end of May and the beginning of June, but the collapse of Shanghai has meant that it cannot arrive until the last week or even after Sant Joan," says Vilardell. Faced with this possibility, they chose to find a way to produce from the State, something that, among other things, would give them more speed in the free market.

This has meant that Catalan pyrotechnic companies, but also located in the Basque Country and mainly in the Valencian Country, among others, have had to strengthen themselves for this campaign and increase personnel. Vilardell assures that this has not implied an extra cost, because the money that he had planned to invest in the transport of product from China has been reverted in the hiring of companies in the territory: "Only our company has allowed the hiring of thirty people", explains Vilardell, who also owns the firm Petards CM.

Added to the transport problems are production limitations in China, where the maximum weight allowed in firecrackers has been reduced after multiple accidents that have occurred in factories in the country. It is for this reason that firms such as Vilardell's have established a plan to increasingly concentrate the production of firecrackers, as well as the production of the corresponding batches in the State, a situation that has already occurred this campaign, going from 5 % of the total registered until last year to more than 50% that is produced here.

"Our project is to buy more and more here, and we are waiting to acquire a workshop to be able to manufacture our product," says Vilardell, who acknowledges that it will not be possible to concentrate all of the production because there are Chinese products that cannot be substituted.

Regarding the trend, Vilardell confirms that there is an increasing predominance of the source of colors ahead of thunder. This fact responds to the increasingly established sensitivity of safety in product launches, especially with children in mind, and respect for animals, among others.

For this reason, the supply of lots with low grammage firecrackers and especially fountains for all audiences increases in the sellers' catalogues. However, the large batteries of rockets, firecrackers with loud thunder and firecrackers still have their way out.