São Paulo – Brazil’s cosmetics manufacturing company Goz Cosméticos is selling 30% to 40% more to Arab countries each year, with performance set to improve even more in 2016. Commercial director Leandro Tavitian told ANBA that revenues from sales to those countries will go from USD 400,000 last year to USD 600,000 in this one, a 50% increase. “The market is in full-fledged expansion. It’s opening up,” Tavitian said.
Goz has facilities in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, including an office, storage space and a technical center. The premises and all deals in Arab markets are run in tandem with a local partner, Michel Mrad of Lebanon, a cosmetics chemist that Goz joined in opening its UAE branch. The goods are sold in Egypt, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon and the UAE.
Goz Cosméticos was founded in 2002 by Tavitian and his father, after a 12-year stint running a cosmetics shop in Osasco, in the São Paulo metro area. As they weighed out the needs of his hairdresser customers, they realized it was time to make their own product. Goz’s manufacturing operations also opened in Osasco, with production outsourced to third parties at first. Four years ago, the company began making its own product.
From the get-go, exportation was a part of the plan. “Even then, exporting was a dream of mine,” the commercial director said, adding that during his shop days, he had been an importer. After joining export-fostering programs and business incubators, Goz went to a Dubai industry show in 2013. That was where the company ran into its Dubai partner, and within six month, operations were up and running in the emirate. “We realized that the Arab culture was a demanding one and we’d have to be present there, otherwise the business wouldn’t take off,” Tavitian explained.
The facilities are set in the Deira district. The technical center provides training to beauty professionals who use Goz items. “Since then we’ve seen nothing but growth,” the commercial director says. The company became a regular at the Beautyworld Middle East, the region’s biggest beauty industry show. It went in 2014, 2015, 2016 and will be there again in 2017, as part of a group brought in by the Brazilian Cosmetics, Toiletry and Fragrance industry Association (Abihpec) and the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil) as part of a project designed to fuel exports.
Goz Cosméticos exports 25% of its output, with Arab countries accounting for 75% of all foreign sales. Apart from the Middle East and North Africa, the company sells to Colombia and the United States. In the latter country, Goz owns a commercial office and a warehouse. Tavitian explains that in the Arab country, Brazilian-made products compete with European and American ones and are synonymous of quality, but adds that one must actually be there in order to sell.
Goz makes a wide range of hair products, from shampoo and conditioners to straighteners. The latter two are the bestsellers in Arab countries. The company also began making and selling an American brand of organic bug repellent made from lemon grass oil and citronella. It is safe for pregnant women and children 6 months or older, and it has been sold in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The company is now looking to ship it to other Arab countries as well.
Goz Cosméticos has one manufacturing plant and 45 staff.
Quick facts:
Goz Cosméticos
Website: www.gozcosmetics.com
Phone: +55 (11) 3683-8378
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
