Despite the hundreds of thousands of vans, lorries, buses, trains, motorcycles, and cars on the streets of the Brazilian city I realised there were virtually no vehicle wraps. Eventually I managed to photograph a truck sporting a reasonable advertising wrap, but otherwise there was just the ordinary signage on the cab door depicting a phone number and a name. And that was about it. So if you are interested in setting up a vehicle wrapping business and can speak Portuguese there’s clearly an opportunity.

Just one note of caution: the Brazilian economy has moved into recession this week. There’s more of this on my blog.

And looking at most businesses, there was air of neglect and lack of general investment suggesting business is not exactly ”

Culturally it came as a surprise as the traffic-filled streets of the largest city in either of the Americas looked in many ways the same as Bristol, Belfast or Berlin. And yet on closer inspection you become aware that the South American giant is some 20 years or more behind us in terms of wealth, marketing, purchasing, wages and all the fixtures and fittings on an average British city.

Infrastructure is poor with few trams or railways, over-subscribed buses, and pavements which are a challenge to anyone in mountain boots. One aspect soon becomes apparent. Those thousand and one stop and shop convenience stores, street after street of retail outlets which are found in every street in Britain are missing. And looking at most businesses, there was air of neglect and lack of general investment suggesting business is not exactly booming. Indeed this week the country officially entered a recession in its economic figures.

One observation that came out of the feedback was the non-Anglo file nation sees Britain as rich and successful and working to near capacity. Print firms in São Paulo work on average to around 60 percent efficiency while in the UK we are closer to 80 percent.

So if you do fancy making a go of it in São Paulo where wide format is virtually unknown, then opportunity knocks.

If you have an interesting story or a view on this news, then please e-mail news@signlink.co.uk

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