São Paulo – Furniture manufacturing company Tremarin, from the municipality of Farroupilha, state of Rio Grande do Sul, wants to export to the Arab market. The company has sold to Lebanon on two different occasions, in 2005 and 2009, and is seeking out a representative to its products in the region. “There are perspectives for business, but it takes a local partner,” says the company’s commercial director Marcos Luís Troes. In 2008 and 2009, Tremarin attended Index, a furniture industry show held annually in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Tremarin makes 15 to 20 containers’ worth of dining and living room furniture a month. Products range from tables and chairs to racks, china cabinets, centre tables and buffets, and are made out of raw materials such as MDF, pressed wood and wood. According to Troes, 17% of the output is shipped abroad. At present, the company’s main buying country is the United States. However, Tremarin also sells to Angola and Uruguay.
The commercial director explains that due to the strong domestic demand, the enterprise is not investing in exports lately. Troes believes a good partner abroad is needed in order to sell, because the company is looking for doing business in the long-haul. In the United States, for instance, Tremarin works with two different distributors, one for hotels and the other for online sales. The pieces of furniture are designed in partnership with customers. Troes explains that designing the items with customers is a trend not only among importers, but also storeowners in Brazil.
Tremarin
Tremarin is a traditional furniture company in Brazil. It was established in the late 1970s as a small custom furniture manufacturer by two friends, Luiz Troes and Zulmiro Marin. At that time, sales were basically local. Around the 1980s, after a major order placed by another company in the Farroupilha municipality, the household utensils company Tramontina, Tremarin decided to turn to assembly line production.
In 1994 the enterprise began exporting as it was met with demand from neighbouring countries such as Argentina and Uruguay. A few years later, around 2002, after participating in Movelsul, which is Latin America’s leading furniture fair, held in the Bento Gonçalves municipality in Rio Grande do Sul, Tremarin made other contacts that led it to export. It was at this fair that the company met the importer who bought items from the company in 2009.
In the early 2000s, Tremarin decided to invest in exporting, and sent Troes, who worked in the commercial department, to undergo training in the United States. There, apart from studying English, he was in close contact with a company representative in the country to gain deeper knowledge of the market. Troes, who is a member of the company’s founding family, says Tremarin wants to export to the Arab market, even though the company is not export-oriented at this time.
Tremarin has 70 employees and targets the medium- and high-income ranges. All production takes place at the Farroupilha unit. Domestically, the company sells to all regions of Brazil, according to the commercial director.
Contato:
Tremarin
Telephone: (+55 54) 2109-7777
Website: www.tremarin.com.br
Email: marcos@tremarin.com.br
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
