Isaura Daniel
São Paulo – Condor, a Brazilian producer of hygiene, beauty, and cleaning products, will start selling hairbrushes to Saudi Arabia starting in July. Saudi Arabia will be the second country in the Middle East to maintain commercial relations with the company, a market leader in the Brazilian comb, hairbrush, and broom market. Up to then, in the region, the company had only sold products to Syria.
Since the beginning of this year, however, the company has been working on a project to diversify export, currently 75% turned to the United States, and 16% to countries in Latin America. Condor is going to work on increasing sales to the nations in the Middle East, Africa and Europe. Currently export answers to 17% of company revenue – or around US$ 6.3 million. The target is to elevate this percentage to 25% up to 2005.
The Arab countries currently answer to 5% of company foreign trade, according to company export manager Lissandro Luiz Grossl. Nowadays the region represents less than 1% of the company export revenue. Syria purchases only around US$ 25,000 in professional Condor hairbrushes. Regular sales to a local distributor have been taking place for three years.
In Saudi Arabia, hairbrushes are going to enter through a local distributor. The first order, after company participation in cosmetics fair BeautyWorld Middle East, in Dubai, was around US$ 11,000.
At the fair, Condor started talking to distributors and retailers in other Arab nations such as the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Oman, Lebanon, and Syria. The intention is now to work on increasing relations with companies interested and visit the countries where there are greater business possibilities during the year.
Although Condor foreign trade is focussed on the United States, a total of 35 countries buy brand products. The most exported products are brooms. In the Arab market, however, the greatest interest is in hair products.
About Condor
Condor has four factories in the city of São Bento do Sul, in the southern state of Santa Catarina, and distributes products to around 300,000 points of sale in Brazil. Apart from the hairbrushes and brooms, Condor produces toothbrushes, accessories in the hair area such as brushes for hair dyeing, dental floss, and other products for cleaning, including squeegees and spades. There is still a division for production of paintbrushes for art and house painting. The company units produce around 160 million items every year.
The company was established in 1929 by Russian immigrant Augusto Emílio Klimmek, and remains in the same city to date. Export started back in 1962. As well as being included in various ranks of best known Brazilian brands in the hygiene, beauty, and cleaning sector, the company also has the stamp "Company Friendly to Children" due to community projects it develops with children and adolescents, mainly in education and mouth hygiene incentives.
Last year, company revenues totalled around US$ 42.6 million. The forecast for this year is around US$ 43.3 million.
Service
Condor S.A
www.condor.ind.br
condor@condor.ind.br
(+5547) 631 2000
