Dubai – Arab aromas such as oud, amber, musk and roses are the base of the perfumes of Teeb Al Ghawali line by Syrian perfumer Mohamed Lufti. Based in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, for 26 years, the businessman has owned five perfume brands and over 100 fragrances for all tastes, senses of smell and budgets. Teeb Al-Ghawali line, he says, is special for referring to the Arab culture and ancestry and the history of the first perfumes and elements. This is the line he most wants to bring to Brazil. A new member of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, Lufti seeks out a Brazilian partner to start selling in the country and talked to ANBA in his office.
“To break into Brazil, there are two ways, either by selling the finished product or developing a fragrance line. I’m open to all possibilities, we’re very flexible. If I find one partner in Brazil to work with me, I’ll be happy. I don’t need many; if one covers my sales’ capacity through good connections, that’s perfect,” Lufti said.
In 2015 Lufti was in Brazil. “I went to São Paulo and met Rafael [Solimeo, now the head of the Arab Brazilian Chamber international office in Dubai]. I walked on the streets, malls and the big cities and realized Brazil is a good market for my perfumes,” he said.
His most luxurious lines come in wooden and leather boxes, which adds value to the finished products. Each 100-ml bottle of the Teeb Al Ghawali line, for example, costs AED 695 [USD 189]. “I don’t sell water, I sell perfumes, and they are long-lasting,” Lufti said. Created in 2018, this line, he says, contain natural fragrance oil, which gives them a higher-quality and make them more costly, and in fact less profitable. “But it’s what makes me prouder. It’s my brand; I created it by researching on the streets, books and studying the history of the Arab perfumes,” he explained. He believes one needs to have a history behind the perfumes to stand out in the market.
ANBA was in his Sharjah-based office, where he holds over 10,000 boxed perfume bottles. Lufti’s more affordable brands are Montes, MLP, Bleu Blanc, and Love Story. The latter has final price of AED 150 [USD 41]. In bulk, it’s sold for AED 55 [USD 15] each.
Over the last three years, Lufti has devoted himself to exporting his products and aimed at markets such as France, Germany, Spain, Russia and Brazil. He says that the alcohol and fragrance oils of all his perfumes come from France. Three years ago, Lufti sold around 5,000 bottles. He didn’t want to reveal the sales of the last two years, which he says weren’t very good for the UAE perfume market.
Lufti has a degree in mechanic engineering and practiced the profession for some years before devoting himself to his family’s business. His maternal grandfather was a perfumer, and his brother and cousins followed the family business, too. They maintained the manufacturing in Aleppo until 2011, when the perfume production had to be discontinued due to the war that raged through Syria. Then Lufti established a factory to finish his perfumes in Sharjah, where he already lived. “I don’t sell just perfumes, I sell ideas, that’s important,” the perfumer finished.
Contact
Mohamed Lutfi
+971 555 47 8000
+971 50 527 3217
kgltrdco@emirates.net.ae
mohnabhanl@yahoo.com
www.teebalghawali.com
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
