São Paulo – Out of the atelier in São João Del Rei, a city 180 kilometres away from the Minas Gerais state capital Belo Horizonte, come ceramics items ready to adorn a broad variety of environments in Brazil and the world over. Businessman and sculptor Adriano Ribeiro, of company Real Cerâmica Tiradentes, boasts a product line of 200-plus models and sells to all states of Brazil. He has sold his creations to countries such as Belgium, Spain, France, Israel, and Portugal. The portfolio includes sculptures of chickens, dolls (known as namoradeiras), groom and bride couples, baskets, vases, all made from ceramics in the most artisanal fashion possible.
“That is precisely where our differential resides, in doing everything manually,” explains Ribeiro. “We do not work with gypsum on a larger production scale.” According to the entrepreneur, who runs the company alongside his wife Aline and seven other people, paintings using lively colours also attract people’s attention. Not to mention the famed creativity of the state of Minas Gerais when it comes to handicraft, of course.
According to Ribeiro, chickens are the company’s top-selling items. “The dolls, however, are successful as well,” he says. In Brazil, aside from selling to retailers in all regions of the country, the company also sells its products at stores of the Graal chain, located in gas stations along highways.
With regard to the foreign market, all of the sales deals closed thus far had support from intermediaries. The partners include the Mãos de Minas (Hands from Minas) project to foster exports of handicraft from the state, which in turn belongs to the Training Centre and Entrepreneur Support Institute (Centro Cape). “It was thus, as a result of Mãos de Minas, that we arrived in Spain, where our items may be found at El Corte Inglés stores,” says Adriano.
Another very common type of export deal is the purchase of items by interested parties that already operate overseas. “One Brazilian living in Israel, for instance, came here, placed the orders and took our products over,” explains the businessman.
Be it directly or indirectly, Real Cerâmica Tiradentes plans on reaching more foreign buyers. The Arabs are among the future targets. “Why not? We are aware that the Middle Eastern countries are great clients for Brazilian products,” says Adriano. “We are keenly interested,” says the sculptor of Minas Gerais export-type namoradeiras.
Contact
Real Cerâmica Tiradentes
Tel.: +55 32 3373-2214
Site: http://rceramica.blogspot.com/
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
