São Paulo – Andacco, a footwear manufacturing company based in the state of Minas Gerais, is stepping up its sales to the Arab market. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Libya and Kuwait account for as much as 10% of the company’s exports.
“We have already seen [our exports to the Arabs] go up by 20% this year, as a result of deals closed at [industry] fairs,” says Export manager Leandro Oliveira. He explains that the company sells to distributors in Arab countries. “They come to the fairs, place the orders, we ship the product and they distribute it,” he says.
The top-selling items are men’s shoes. “Our product is leather-made and we do not use swine leather, not even the lining; the lining is made out of bovine leather,” says Oliveira, adding that the brands shoes are handmade.
Currently, the Andacco plant puts out 4,000 pairs of shoes per day, including men’s and women’s models. Of these, 40% are shipped abroad, to 22 different countries. The leading targets are Russia, the United States, Chile, and Bolivia.
Oliveira posits that Arabs are being attracted into buying due to the export-friendly exchange rates of the past two years, i.e. the high price of the US dollar against Brazil’s real. “I hadn’t seen as many Arabs as in the 2014 Couromoda fair in a long time,” says the manager of the leather fashion fair held last month in São Paulo.
Apart from Couromoda, Andacco does business with Arab clients on a regular basis at Francal, another fair in São Paulo, and at Expo Riva Schuh, in Riva del Garda, Italy. The company is preparing to go back to attending Micam, a shoe fair in Milan.
In order to take its Middle East deals to an even higher level, the company became associated with the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and hired a company specializing in footwear to shop for new markets in the region.
“The aim is to determine the acceptance of our products on the Arab market, the outlook for new deals, to work on developing the market, and that includes taking part in local fairs,” Oliveira explains.
Headquartered in the city of São Sebastião do Paraíso, Andacco is a part of the leather and show conglomerate Cacique, established in 1967, and currently employing 600 people.
Contact
Andacco
Tel.: +55 (35) 3531-1453
Email: export@andacco.com.br
Website: www.andacco.com.br
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
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