São Paulo – Six years ago, its eyes set on the foreign market, company Very Important established vegetable cosmetics brand Phytophilo, featuring labels in Portuguese and English. Its product line includes bar soaps, liquid soaps, oils, bathing salts, moisturizing lotions, gels and bathing foams. The bar soaps have already been sold to countries such as Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Now, exports to the Arabs have ceased, but the company wants to conquer the region again.
“We have always viewed that market attentively,” says Adriana Barbito, the director of Very Important. “They love Brazilian products. It would be interesting to find a distributor in the region,” she says. The company has participated in two editions of BeautyWorld Middle East, the leading cosmetics industry fair in the region, held in Dubai, but business with the Arabs, and foreign sales in general, were affected by the world financial crisis of 2008. “I hope that in 2012 we will get back to attending the fair,” she declares.
According to Adriana, Phytophilo was established to sell products based on natural ingredients, because these enjoy widespread acceptance in the international market, which is the brand’s target. “We established the brand to promote Amazonian products. We have quality products at competitive prices,” says the executive. “Our products do not contain paraben, which is an aggressive preservative,” she explains. Phytophilo’s cosmetics are based on plants and fruit like babassu, assai, aloe vera, cupuassu, coconut, acerola, passion fruit, among others.
At present, the company is resuming its exports to nearer markets such as Bolivia and Guatemala. “We are doing recovery work,” she explains. However, she also bets in sales to farther countries. “We are in talks with some people in Saudi Arabia,” she reveals. The production, which is outsourced, ranges from 6,000 to 10,000 items per month, manufactured depending on sales demand. At its office, in the city of São Paulo, Very Important counts on five employees.
Contact
Very Important
Tel.: +55 11 5642-1162
E-mail: veryimportant@veryimportant.com.br or phytophilo@phytophilo.com.br
Site: www.phytophilo.com.br
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
