Against a continually strengthening Euro, European entrepreneurs are increasingly seeking business partners in Brazil. Recently, footwear manufacturers from Spain and Portugal closed deals with Calçados Agabê of Franca/SP, for the production of some of their shoe ranges.
According to Marcelo Bettarello, export director of the Agabê Group, Europe’s high production costs have opened the door to new opportunities for Brazilian producers. Agabê exports 85% of its production to the USA but is now increasingly looking to the European market where it already has customers in England, Russia, Italy and Germany.
Calçados Sândalo, also of Franca/SP, has also closed deals as a result of the European situation and is currently producing for customers in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic that were traditional buyers of Italian footwear. According to Kleber Magno de Freitas, export manager with Grendene SA, of Farroupilha/RS, Brazil, the company has a good chance of exporting 24 million pairs this year, a 39% increase on the year before. The company also attributes its success to eight years of hard work, investment in new markets, participation in international fairs and ensuring that their customers will get what they are after.
Grendene sells to over 60 countries and is currently resuming sales to Argentina where, up until 2001, it used to place 2 million pairs per year. So far this year, the company has sold 700,00 pairs to Argentina and is expecting to have shipped 800,00 by the year end. On top of this, Grendene has recently closed deals with buyers from the Phillipines and Indonesia, the first orders since the Asian crash of 1997.
Grendene produces 130 million pairs of shoes per year. Of these, 18% or 24 million are exported. The group has factories in Sobral/CE, Fortaleza/CE and Crato/CE where most of the shoes are produced while the factory operating at its headquarters in Farroupilha/RS currently produces smaller quantities. Grendene also has its own distribution centre in the USA.
