São Paulo – Haco, a Brazilian company that is a leading tag manufacturer worldwide, has begun exporting to the United Arab Emirates. Next week, the company’s branch in Portugal, which focuses on the foreign market, will ship tags for the uniforms of a gym in Dubai, in the Emirates. According to the manager of the Portuguese branch, Valdir Ochner, the order, which is a test, comprises approximately 1,000 units. “It may attract other gyms,” says Valdir, adding that Haco wants to grow in the Arab market.
Haco was founded in 1928 by German immigrants, in the city of Blumenau, in the state of Santa Catarina. Presently, in addition to the headquarters, the company has its Portuguese branch, in Covilhã, and three other units, of which two are located in Santa Catarina and one in Ceará. In the Arab world, the tags are already sold to tow countries, Morocco and Tunisia, in North Africa. The two markets are served by the Covilhã unit. According to Haco’s trade and marketing coordinator in Portugal, Nélia Ochner, sales to the region began two years ago.
The sale to Dubai was made after the client found Haco’s website and contacted the enterprise, but sales to North Africa are made by agents. According to Valdir, sales to the region do not account for a large share of the Portuguese unit’s exports. “Approximately 20%,” he says. According to Nélia, Haco’s largest clients in the region are large brands that manufacture their products locally, such as Zara and Mango, from Spain. According to Valdir, European textile companies manufacture their products in North Africa to make use of the abundant labour.
Haco’s Portuguese unit mostly serves Europe, but also East and North Africa. Out of the total produced, 30% stays in Portugal and the remaining 70% go to other Arab countries. The products made are the same as in Brazil, namely tags in materials such as cloth, cardboard, leather and synthetic products for textiles, shoes, purses, and bed, bath and linen, among others. Haco also makes items such as shoelaces and ribbons. The Covilhã branch has 70 employees, and there is an intention of expanding the activities and increasing the number of employees as soon as the world financial crisis is over, says Valdir.
Presently, Haco makes 3 billion tags per year in Brazil and abroad. Although it is now the domestic and global industry leader, the company started out small in the interior of Santa Catarina. Its founding family Conrad kicked off the business by purchasing a small cotton shoelace plant in the 1920s. In the 1940s, however, the arrival of new families of German immigrants turned the Blumenau region into a textile hub, and that prompted Haco to start producing tags. In the 1980s, the enterprise updated its industrial park with electronic looms. Two new units, including the one in Portugal, were opened in the 1990s, and another two were opened in the year 2000.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
