Dubai – The business by company Santa Luzia, of frames and skirting boards, began even before the opening of the Big 5 Show, the building sector fair that began today (23) in Dubai. The company, headquartered in Santa Catarina, closed a sale for 20,000 square meters of skirting boards for a project by a real estate developer in Dubai. This is the first Santa Luzia export to the Arab market.
Negotiations with the construction company had started three months ago with the Santa Luzia sales representative in Dubai. According to the company’s export manager, Fernando Montano, the Brazilian product should be used for part of the project in Dubai and in case it is extended, another order may be made.
The differential of the skirting boards made by Santa Luzia are in the raw material used by the company, polyethylene, a kind of painted plastic that imitates wood and is more resistant. “It is a novelty in the Arab market. Apart from that, it is a good looking product that costs half the price of wooden skirting boards,” stated Montano, who is exhibiting at an individual stand at the fair, alongside the Brazilian pavilion, organized by the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce with the support of the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil).
According to the manager, the Arab and North American markets are very promising for the company. He believes that after participation in the Big 5 and another two fairs in the United States, foreign sales should double.
Currently, one third of company revenues come from exports, but the objective for next year is to reach 50% on the foreign market and 50% on the domestic. “We are going to have to double our production to supply the demand,” he said.
Santa Luzia found a representative in Dubai six months ago and, according to Montano, the idea is to have a warehouse with products in the emirate, following the model in Miami, in the United States, where the company has Apex support.
In the first few hours of the fair, Montano and his representatives in Dubai had already received at the stand importers from the Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Iran and India. Apart from the polyethylene frames, the company also works with wood for some kinds of skirting boards.
Inauguration
At the opening of the Big 5 Show, the minister of Finance of Dubai, Hamdan Bin Rasheed Al Maktoom, visited the Brazilian stand and was met by the secretary general at the Arab Brazilian Chamber, Michel Alaby, the administrative vice president, Marcelo Sallum and the treasury director, Nahid Chicani.
Alaby thanked the minister for his visit to the Brazilian pavilion and said that the organisation has been participating in the fair for five years. There are 24 companies and one association participating in the stand this year, mainly in the ceramics, stone, machinery, paint, tool and metal sectors.
*Translated by Mark Ament
