• Ozonizer manufactures disinfection equipment for industrial and residential uses.
• With the assistance of ProCórdoba Agency, the company traveled to Feria Expoalimentaria in Peru in 2019 and contacted potential clients.
• Recently, it has shipped its products to a dairy company in Lima.

Ozonizer, based in the Marqués de Sobremonte neighborhood in Córdoba City, manufactures ozone machines for air and water cleaning. Industrial engineer Gonzalo Fontaine is the Commercial Director of the company which he founded 12 years ago with his father, agricultural engineer Javier Fontaine. The company is a pioneer in the development of this technology which allows killing microorganisms, bacteria, viruses and fungi naturally, without the need for chemicals.

Minister of Industry, Trade and Mining Eduardo Accastello referred to the export and said, "One of the main lines of work the Provincial Government has set out is the internationalization of companies, which not only brings in foreign money, but also raises the level of exporting firms, fosters competitiveness, enhances production and opens up markets."

"ProCórdoba keeps on working hard on that goal and Ozonizer has shown that it is possible to achieve it. We have seen that with effort and teamwork, internationalization is possible for more and more companies," added Accastello.

Ozonizer has big clients such as Arcor, La Serenísima and Sancor, and is present in different industries around the country. The company focuses mainly in the dairy sector, but ozone has a wide range of applications in different industries and even offices. On the other hand, they have sold nearly 15 thousand machines for homes.

Gonzalo said, "Ozone is the most powerful natural disinfectant on Earth. We've had good results in the domestic market. The coronavirus pandemic brought about a rise in the number of competitors, but that is a good thing, because it's led to a greater awareness of the properties of ozone. Two years ago there were only 5 people in the company. Today, there are 10 of us and we expect to grow even more in the short term, because demand has risen exponentially due to Covid-19, especially for residential machines.

Exploring international markets

In late 2019, Ozonizer received assistance from the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Mining's ProCórdoba Agency to travel to Expoalimentaria in Peru, one of the largest exhibitions in Latin America for the food sector. Ozonizer exhibited their product at the stand set up by the Argentine Investment and Trade Promotion Agency. "ProCórdoba paid for 50 percent of our travel expenses, and this allowed us to become familiar with the [Peruvian] market and to contact a significant number of potential clients," explained the commercial director.

"This year," he continued, "we engaged in communications with a dairy company in Lima, and made a sale in February. Due to the pandemic, we were only recently able to deliver the products and achieve our first export," added Fontaine.

The exported product is an ozone machine - an ozonizer - to eliminate fungi in cheese chambers and to sanitize rooms in cheese-making facilities. The system basically transforms the air's oxygen into ozone, getting air from outside which then undergoes a process that breaks the oxygen molecule so that ozone is made.

When asked about their plans for foreign trade, Gonzalo Fontaine explained, "We want to grow, especially in the dairy industry in our neighboring countries. We had planned on going to many fairs this years, including exhibitions in Europe, but we will have to wait until the situation allows for the events. The sale to Peru is our first formal export since we became a Sociedad Anónima Simplificada ("simplified corporation"). We had previous sent some trial or non-conventional shipments to Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, Angola, Panama and Chile. In other words, we have a lot of potential clients and good prospects of growth."