With a total of eleven branches spanning the length and breadth of Chile, Dartel Electricidad is dedicated to the distribution and marketing of some of the most famous and prestigious national and international electrical brands. These brands and solutions meet the high, medium and low voltage needs of Dartel’s customers within the industrial, fishing, construction, engineering, telecommunications and mining sectors.
“We have been present in the Chilean market since 1970 and were the first company of its kind to set itself up to service the growing mining market in this country,” states commercial manager, Claudio Quiñones. “Through the distribution of brands like Legrand, Siemens, 3M, Lovato Electric, Parker and Schneider we are today involved throughout the entire mining process, specialising in a number of specialised fields such as automation solutions.”
According to Quiñones, the principle strength that has served Dartel so well over more than four decades of existence is the high quality service it delivers to its customers. Dartel’s commitment to providing its customers with the required products and solutions quickly and expeditiously is one that exists throughout the company and is ingrained in the minds of its almost 400 employees.
In addition to a strong desire to meet the consumer needs of its clients what Dartel also possesses, thanks to the length of time that it has been around in Chile, is an unrivalled degree of knowledge and experience that its competitors can only dream of having. It is this expertise that has seen it take on the role of product distributor for all manner of vital projects including industrial illumination, automation and power distribution.
“The mining and construction sectors are the two principle markets that we have grown with most significantly in recent times and we have no doubt that this trend will continue,” Quiñones explains. “In the last year alone the mining industry experienced exponential growth here in Chile and this too we expect to remain the case. What this often results in as well is the growth on the construction sector and both are intrinsically linked to the expansion of the country as a whole.”
With copper accounting for more than 40 percent of all of Chile’s annually exported goods it stands to reason that a company like Dartel would continue to target the mining sector will all its available resources and strengths, and as Quiñones highlights this is undoubtedly the plan. “All the signs point to the fact that the mining market in the country will continue to expand and will do so for at least the next five years or more.”
That is not to say that the market is not without it challenges. “The unfortunate reality,” Quiñones continues, “is that with the cost of copper today being relatively low we have had to begin looking towards other potential fields of growth, for example the industrial markets that exist in the South of Chile. When we have low copper prices that result is usually that mine operators scale back on certain high-cost projects and clearly this has an effect on us. Where we prosper is in the fact that our knowledge and experience allows us to be present in a mix of industry sectors all at one, meaning that we can weather any negative trends in one sector by focusing on others.”
Being willing and able to develop the way it operates in Chile is clearly a hugely important trait for Dartel to possess. It is also one that will be of great use as the company looks to the next stage of its growth.
“One of the things we are examining,” Quiñones concludes, “is the possibility of expanding our presence into another country at some point in the future. While we are a national company, and are hugely proud of that, we are not blind to the opportunities that exist in sectors like mining in neighbouring countries such as Peru and Bolivia. While such talks are at a very, very early stage we are definitely laying down the groundwork for what is our long-term vision for Dartel.”
Written by Will Daynes, research by Louisa Adcock
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