Two of the world’s largest scale and most multifaceted events — the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games — are coming to Rio de Janeiro in less than two years.
Rio 2016 procurement director Fernando Cotrim is responsible for developing the organizing committee’s supply chain. The mission includes ensuring that 30 million items are available, from ballpoint pens to sports equipment, furniture, horse food and even ships, a variety of articles unparalleled in scale. The operation includes more than 60 thousand square meters of storage space – divided between the Barra, Deodoro and Maracana zones – and more than 1,000 outsourced professionals.
Cotrim faces the greatest challenge of his career and is welcoming cooperation from Chinese companies.
The official mascots of the games — a bright yellow cat-like character for the Olympics and a mop-headed doll for the Paralympics — were unveiled on Nov 24. A company from China is the licensed manufacturer and vendor for both mascots, as well as the official pins for the games.
Last month, a Chinese sports apparel maker became the official uniform supplier for the games, agreeing to provide more than 106,500 uniforms to technical staff, volunteers, test event personnel and torch relay participants.
“Two Chinese companies have been included in the supply chain for the games. One is 361 Degrees for the uniforms and the other is Honav for the production and sales of pins and mascots,” Cotrim told China Daily in an exclusive interview.
“As far as I know, in other bidding process like furniture, there are also Chinese companies eager to be part of the supply chain,” he added.
