São Paulo – B2Bs held at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce in São Paulo this Wednesday (7) helped suppliers from the city to get closer to large Brazilian retail chains and served as a training for similar experiences in the international market. The event was held by the São Paulo Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (SP Negócios) and the Brazilian Retail Industry Equipment and Services Association (ABIESV).
SP Negócios answers to the Municipality of São Paulo and aims to foster business generation for São Paulo companies in domestic and foreign market. The B2Bs at the Arab Brazilian Chamber put services and goods suppliers face to face with retailers. SP Negócios Business and Exports director Silvana Scheffel Gomes explained that B2Bs at the domestic market are a chance for companies to increase their turnover in order to have a breathing space for international operations.
SP Negócios has a program focused on promoting exports, SP Exporta. Silvana said that exporting means to lay off the business risks for the companies. SP Negócios works on encouraging exporting together with the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil), through the Qualification for Export Program (PEIEX). As part of the initiative, 150 companies receive internal training with consulting firms and 590 participate in the program as a whole.
The company Green Natural Foods participated in the B2Bs aiming to supply creamy cassava for the retail representatives at the Arab Brazilian Chamber. The company’s partner Daniel Fernandez said he made a good connection, which scheduled a later meeting for talks and tasting, already at his first meeting during the event. Green Natural sells creamy cassava in pieces, packed and ready to fry, in flavors natural, provolone and spicy. The company has its first exports settled for Canada.
Another company, Lemca Iluminação, participated in the B2Bs at the Arab Brazilian Chamber looking for new clients. The retailers there included both companies that they still don’t sell to and others that are already their clients. Lemca supplies lightning products, usually associated with architectonic projects. The modern solutions they offer include LED lamps, with low consumption and high durability. Lemca commercial manager Carlos Pacheco tells that the company already exported to the United Arab Emirates.
The B2Bs featured companies whose products may be sold in retail as well as suppliers of services and equipment for shops and supermarkets operations. ABIESV brings together manufacturers and sellers of lighting projects, architecture and decoration projects, and even manikin and shelf factories. “Before the second half is over, while retail is picking up, we intend to give retailers options to get to know good suppliers,” ABIESV chairman Marcos Andrade said about the B2Bs.
Andrade reported ABIESV works with Apex-Brasil to take its members’ goods and services abroad and is also working on attracting retail services startups. Andrade told about some innovations that are emerging for retail, such as a virtual reality app that shows how some pieces (such as manikins) will look at the shop, and even a client profile assessment service through cameras, which detects the shop’s most visited spots, rush hours, and others.
The Arab Brazilian Chamber took the opportunity to connect with companies that started exporting recently or are interested in the international market. “Companies are very interested in doing business between them. Many of them are already considering doing international business, some are already doing it and others are interested,” Arab Brazilian Chamber commercial manager Daniella Leite told ANBA at the beginning of the B2Bs. She considers it important that the Chamber participates in this kind of event, which brings the organization closer to different industries.
The Arab Brazilian Chamber plans to hold a retail forum focused on Arab and Brazilian supermarkets from late October to early November. “It’s a good initiative to make connections with this industry and learn more about this public in order to lay a foundation for our retail event,” said Daniella.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
