São Paulo – Dark glass brand Chilli Beans aims to have 35 points of sale in the Middle East in four years. The first shop was inaugurated in Kuwait City 20 days ago with sales well above expectations. “The target was to sell between seven and eight items a day, but we are selling 22,” said to ANBA the owner of the company, Caito Maia. The opening of the unit is the beginning of a greater plan for the region, to proceed with shops in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and then to include countries like Lebanon.
Business in the region should be developed by the same businessman who inaugurated the shop in Kuwait, Marzooq Al Marzouk, whose family has operations in the shopping mall and retail area in the region. The Arab businessman reached Maia after visiting the Chilli Beans shop in Santa Monica, in the state of California. As it is a tourist city, Santa Monica receives visitors from all over the world and became a window for the Brazilian brand. “He visited the shop there and got in contact with us,” he pointed out.
The owner of Chilli Beans believes in promising expansion in the Middle East due to the market niche in which it was set up: glasses ranging from US$ 55, with similar quality to those that are sold abroad for US$ 150 to US$ 200. “And with ten new models being released every week,” recalled the businessman. The brand shops receive ten models of dark glasses a week, as well as five new watches and three new frames for prescription lenses. He sees, in the Middle East, a great lack of products and “marvellous” consumer potential.
Maia said that he appreciates the Arab world, due to initiatives like the development of cities like Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the attraction of colleges and the vision of the local sheikhs, who have plans for the next 50 years. “It is an area that forms global opinion,” said the businessman. Maia is from São Paulo and is 43 years old.
Giant in glasses
Chilli Beans currently has 40 shops abroad, in the United States, Portugal, Colombia and Angola, as well as Kuwait. Around one year ago the company hired a CEO to be based in Los Angeles and manage the company’s expansion in the US. Chilli Beans has had a unit in the country for five years and opened another nine in 2012. By late 2013 the target is to have 40 points of sale. Maia believes that the North American market should serve as a window to the world and that with that the brand should also expand to other countries.
In Brazil, the brand should reach 550 points of sale this year, of which 320 shops and 230 kiosks. The units are spread throughout the country and are almost all franchises. Only nine are own points of sale and are used for direct contact between the brand and the end user, to develop tests and to understand consumers better. The founder of Chilli Beans makes it clear that his business is “brand management”. This is so true that production is also outsourced, 70% in China and 30% in Brazil.
Owner of chillies
Chilli Beans is renowned in Brazil mainly due to its dark glasses, whose symbol is a chilli. But the company also sells frames for prescription lenses, watches and other accessories, like baseball caps. The brand is occasionally licensed and bas been placed on items like bicycles, underwear, socks and lingerie, among others. These items, however, are not sold at the franchises, but at their own points of sale. Maia considers the possibility of investing in handbags, but he makes it clear that he plans to maintain his focus on glasses.
Chilli Beans is the main brand for glasses in Latin America and has a 19% market share. In September this year, the company sold 29.8% of its capital to Gávea investment fund, whose founder is the former governor of Brazil’s Central Bank, Armínio Fraga. Maia does not discard possible listing of the company, but seems to consider this a long-term plan. “There is an IPO light at the end of the tunnel,” he says. But the primary target, according to him, is to reach 1,000 points of sale.
*Translated by Mark Ament
