São Paulo – Nino Kouros, a company headquartered in the city of Novo Hamburgo, in Rio Grande do Sul, aims to reach the Arab countries. The company makes leather for production of shoes, handbags and accessories, as well as carpets made out of an entire ox hide, and aims to turn itself exclusively to the latter activity starting next year. The plans are to increase carpet production and enter new markets, said the company owner, Carlos Kullmann.
“I know that there is a good market in the Arab countries, but I have not yet had the opportunity to enter it,” said Kullmann, regarding the demand for carpets. The products are turned to higher income clients and include natural prints, ox leather, as well as being silk screened, to imitate the hides of zebras, giraffes, jaguars or even geometric designs. Both options may also be mixed, with prints added to the hides.
Exports represent between 90% and 95% of Nino Kouros carpet sales. The main buyer is China, but the company also has clients in the United States, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Turkey and India. The company produces 5,000 carpets a month, each with a surface of around 3.9 square metres, and the aim is to reach 7,000 items a month by the end of next year. The growth in production should go mainly to exports.
Kullmann started producing carpets five years ago and says that he decided to turn his company exclusively to the area as it is more profitable than the production of leather. Currently, Nino Kouros produces 35,000 square metres of leather for the shoe and accessory industry each year. Leathers are bought in the wet-blue format (in early tanning) and are finished by the company, the leather is bought whole, only salted, and Nino Kouros develops the entire tanning process, excluding removal of fur from the product.
Nino Kouros was established by Kullmann in 1998. Born in Igrejinha, a city in Rio Grande do Sul that, like Novo Hamburgo, is traditionally turned to leather, the businessman also decided to work in the area.
Contact
Telephone: (+55 51) 3595.1300
Site: www.tapetesdecouro.com.br
E-mail: nino@ninokouros.com.br
*Translated by Mark Ament
