São Paulo – The Brazilian footwear manufacturing company Grendene posted a 45% increase in export revenues in the first half of this year, according to its balance sheet. Foreign sales amounted to 221.9 million reals, as against 152.9 million reals in the first half of 2011. In US dollars, gross export revenues stood at US$ 118.9 million, up 26.9% from the same period of last year.
“We have confirmed our perspectives of selling higher value-added products. We have closed the first half with an increase in revenue, volume shipped in pairs of shoes, average price in reals, and in dollars,” according to Grendene. The company’s current international sales strategy is to boost sales of products with higher added value.
The more favourable exchange rate has also helped increase export revenues, because it enabled the average price of shoes to go up. “The depreciation of the Brazilian real against the US dollar and the 16.9% increase in average prices in dollars have caused export revenues in reals to rise by 45.1%,” informed the company. Export prices in Brazilian reals were up 33.7%.
Grendene exported 22 million pairs of shoes from January to June this year, up 8.5% from the 20.3 million sold in the same period of last year. The foreign market accounted for 24% of the company’s gross revenues in the first half this year, and 21.6% in the first half of last year. “The share of export revenues in overall revenues did not decline as we expected due to the raised exchange rate,” says the company. The share did decline in terms of volume, however.
Grendene is one of the leading footwear exporting companies in Brazil. In the first half of 2012, the company accounted for 22.4% of all footwear exports from Brazil. The company produced 73.6 million pairs, and posted gross total revenues of 922.6 million reals (US$ 454 million), up 23.7% and 30.6% respectively. The average price of manufactured shoes was up 5.5%. The company makes well-known brands such as Melissa and Ipanema.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
