São Paulo – Starting in July this year, Calçados Bibi, a children’s shoe manufacturing company based in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, will have a representative in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. The company expects its sales to the Middle East to rise from the current figure of 60,000 pairs a year to 100,000 pairs in 2010, and then on to 300,000 pairs per year.
Calçados Bibi began exporting to the Arabs approximately 10 years ago, by means of contacts made at international shoe fairs held in Brazil and Europe. Presently, the company sells its products to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Syria and Lebanon, the latter being its main buyer in the region.
“The Arab market has a huge potential to be tapped. This year, we should start working with a local partner, because they (the Arabs) prefer a more personal contact. This is going to be our bet in order to increase our business volume there,” says Magnus Oliveira, the man in charge of exports to the Middle East.
In the last three years, sales to the Arabs have generated revenues of around US$ 780,000, equivalent to roughly 10% of Calçados Bibi’s overall export revenues.
According to Oliveira, the differential of the shoes that the company sells to the Arabs is the design, the technology and the material used: leather is the basis of Bibi’s product. “These are truly attention-grabbing factors,” he believes.
Headquartered in the city of Parobé, in Rio Grande do sul, Calçados Bibi employs 3,000 people and has annual revenues of US$ 100 million.
Contact
Calçados Bibi
Tel: +55 51 3512-3344
e-mail: magnus@bibi.com.br
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
