São Paulo – The Santa Catarina state-based brand Menina Rio has been wrapped around the feet of Kuwaiti girls since 2005, when the company began exporting to the Gulf country. Menina Rio makes shoes for girls aged seven to 14 which have also conquered markets in Europe and Latin America.
"Our product development is based on research done in Europe. We have a research department which takes care of that. Our products have a concept, and they have added value. Our output is 90% leather shoes and only 10% synthetic leather shoes,” says financial manager Claudia Joice Teixeira.
Menina Rio sells to two distributors in Kuwait via a Brazilian trading company, says the manager. However, most of the brand’s foreign sales are direct to customers. The company also ships shoes to Ecuador, Portugal, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru and Costa Rica at the moment.
The products include boots, sandals and flats. "Arabs like their shoes made from leather, and they like them with lots of colours," says Teixeira. At this time, out of 3,000 shoe pairs made each day, only 10% are shipped abroad, but the company intends to increase that rate. "Our goal is to export another 10% [of production] by the end of 2012," she says.
Teixeira claims that the company has never been to international fairs, but attends major industry events in Brazil. “We go to internationally-known domestic fairs such as Francal, Couromoda and Fit (International Fair for Babies, Children and Youth Products),” she says. She also explains that the company doesn’t have a dedicated foreign trade department, but is structuring itself out to cater to foreign clients and boost sales.
“We are qualifying our personnel through training, also by means of the Brazilian Footwear program, on whose website we are featured, and through registration to participate in the Buyer Project,” says the executive. Brazilian Footwear is a program of the Brazilian Footwear Industry Association (Abicalçados) in partnership with the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex) to promote exports of shoes from Brazil.
Headquartered in the city of São João Batista, in the state of Santa Catarina, Menina Rio was founded in 2004, has 120 direct employees and 300 indirect ones. The company’s annual revenues average around 20 million reals (US$ 9.8 million).
Contact
Menina Rio
Tel. No.: +55 48 3265-1100
Email: financeiro@meninario.com.br
Website: www.meninario.com.br
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
