São Paulo – Eighty companies from the state of Rio Grande do Sul that manufacture footwear, footwear parts, and machinery for the segment are preparing themselves to export. Since the beginning of the year, these eighty micro and small businesses are part of the internationalization program of the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae). According to the manager of the Sebrae’s Footwear Industry Project-Rio Grande do Sul, Daniela Pinheiro, the training program will be held in 2010 and 2011, and is carried out by Sebrae National and Sebrae-Rio Grande do Sul.
Investment will total 2 million real (US$ 1.1 million) and will be provided by the Sebrae and partners organizations in the training program: the Brazilian Association of Shoe and Leather Components Industries (Assintecal), the Brazilian Association of Shoe Manufacturers (Abicalçados) and the Brazilian Association of Industries of Machinery and Equipment for Leather, Footwear and Related Products (Abrameq). Each participating company pays 150 reals (US$ 83) per month, according to Daniela.
Daniela explains that the Sebrae-RS develops footwear industry projects in fields such as entrepreneurial management and the domestic market, and sensed that there was a demand for exports. Thus the idea came up to develop a project so that these micro and small businesses could be better prepared to integrate the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex) programs, for instance. Presently, the companies receiving international training are divided into three segments: finished footwear and artefacts, footwear parts, and footwear industry machinery.
The training program includes import and export workshops, consultancy for devising each company’s internationalization plan, and joint discussion of the plans. The goal, according to Daniela, is for companies to have their export and import plans ready by the end of 2011. There should also be missions, prospecting trips and “market shocks,” i.e. immersion in target markets. These should take place in the second half of this year.
According to Daniela, some of the companies in the project already export, but do so through intermediaries. "They want to export directly," explains the manager. When selecting the companies, Sebrae took into consideration whether they had their own brands, were well established in the domestic market, and had products with good foreign market potential. According to Daniela, the program also includes product adaptation and design.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
