Brazilian brand Spezzato is getting ready for a new project: selling clothes to the Arab nations. The door of entry should be Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.
The first contact with the buyers took place at the beginning of this year and a meeting has been scheduled for a few weeks time.
“In mid April, businessmen from a shopping center in Dubai are going to visit the company so as to decide how they can work on a partnership. They are interested in being franchisees of Brazilian brands,” stated Andrea Kurbhi, one of the partners of Spezzato, who is responsible for the administrative area.
Andrea, who is of Lebanese origin, is optimistic with the possibility of exporting to the Arabs. According to her, the women in the country are very elegant and like to wear attractive clothes at home, to please their husbands.
“Although most of them cover themselves during the day, they always like to look good and well-dressed at home,” stated the businesswoman. Her Arab origin also helps in the negotiations. “I know the culture, I know how things work,” she stated.
The company currently exports to countries in the European Union, among them Italy, France and Portugal, and to the United States. The first sales took place three yeas ago, after the businesswoman participated in a fair in Paris.
Despite not publishing figures, Andrea states that the company has been managing good results on the foreign market. The buyers, in general, come to parades at the São Paulo Fashion Week, to see the collections, and to purchase the clothes.
According to her, the most customized products (which include handicraft), with stonework – one of the differentials of the brand – are the most sought by foreign buyers.
“I believe that this should also be true of the Arab market,” she said.
For this purpose, the businesswoman is also considering taking customization studios to Dubai, like the ones there are at the Brazilian Spezzato shops. “The clothes have a special appearance,” she said.
From the Crib
Andrea and Roberta Nahas – her partner and niece – never studied fashion, having learnt everything with their family, which has always worked in trade.
“We were born breathing textile,” she explained. At the store of one of Andrea’s sisters, she and Roberta discovered that they could make money doing what they liked most: creating modern clothes and talking to customers.
“We liked what I call ‘putting your belly on the counter’,” she explained. They also noticed that the market needed a brand for women between 20 and 30 years of age. Time showed that they were right.
Spezzato was born in 1986, as a supplier to a family store. In one year they already had a strong name on the market. There are currently 16 stores and 400 points of sale throughout Brazil.
Of these, two belong to the company and the rest are franchises that, according to Andrea, have been successful due to the care the company pays to customer attention.
“We have camouflaged clients who visit the shops to see if they are well served,” she said.
The brand makes four collections every year: summer, high summer, winter and high winter. There is an adult line and a teen one – the latter released in 1990 with the participation of another partner: Cristiane Rocco.
“After the brand for adult women became well established, we noticed that there was no differentiated brand for young girls: we then created Spezzato Teen, which currently sells very well,” stated Andrea. The teen line shares spaces in the store with those of the adult clothes.
With each season the adult line, signed by Roberta, who is in charge of style and production, wins famous new consumers such as popular singer Ivete Sangalo, and TV program presenter Daniela Cicarelli (who recently married Real Madrid football player Ronaldo) and singer Preta Gil. Soap-opera characters are also Spezzato “clients”. Many actresses use brand clothes. This “window” has increased sales.
Spezzato
www.spezzato.com.br
Translated by Mark Ament
ANBA – Brazil-Arab News Agency
www.anba.com.br