São Paulo – In 2007, the Brazilian Vanessa de Figueiredo Vilela Araújo created a line of cosmetics different from the others available in the market. The company’s coffee-based products led Vanessa to be nominated for this year’s Empretec Women in Business Award, promoted by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad). Empretec is the name of the Unctad program for promoting training and incentive to entrepreneurship in developing countries.
The Kapeh line includes body hydrating creams, bathing oils, hand and feet moisturizers, liquid and bar soaps, and shampoos for men and women.
The company has already exported to the Netherlands, and now concentrates its exports in Portugal. Sales to the European country account for 3% of the company’s annual revenues, which total to 340,000 reals (US$ 193,000).
Vanessa says that she is making contact in order to export to African countries such as Nigeria and Côte D’Ivoire. Kapeh is also attempting to enter the United States and other Latin American countries. In Kuwait, the company is in touch with a trading company that does market prospecting for its line in the Middle East.
According to Vanessa, the Middle Eastern market is very demanding market, but also interesting. “They enjoy stronger products,” says the owner of Kapeh, who is a pharmacist and biochemist. She explains that the company works with the unprocessed coffee grain, not the milled, not the roasted variety, so her products have a softer scent. Thus, Vanessa claims that the acceptance of her cosmetics in the region needs to be evaluated.
The businesswoman explains that the products took three years to be developed, and that coffee was chosen as the raw material because it contains antioxidants that are beneficial to the human skin, aside from being an abundant plant in the region of Três Pontas, in the state of Minas Gerais, where she lives.
Presently, Kapeh has eight direct employees, but her production is outsourced, so her business involves over 50 people.
The enrolment for the Unctad award was made by means of the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae). According to Vanessa, she was surprised upon learning that she had been nominated for the award. “You must seek ways of adding value to coffee, rather than just exporting the pure grain,” says the businesswoman.
Contact
Kapeh
Site: www.kapeh.com.br
Telephone: (35) 3265-1453
E-mail: contato@kapeh.com.br
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
