São Paulo – Over 200 different products fill the online store of Empório Taybe. The firm established by Lebanon’s Joseph Abou Sleiman brings to Brazil major food brands, mostly from Lebanon, and has been investing in innovation. What makes it stand out from other stores are its ready-to-eat products. Options include hummus to stuffed eggplant and stuffed grape leaf. “All canned and ready to serve,” Sleiman said. Brazilians can acquire the products on the brand’s online store.
“Traditional hummus cans where you had to add tahini and salt and prepare it were already available. And what have we launched in the Brazilian market? Ready-to-eat hummus. Even grape leaves are ready to it, so is the stuffed eggplant. You can serve a table in five minutes. If a visitor arrives, you only have to open it, put it on the plate, and you’ll have an Arab meal ready. All with original flavors from there,” said Sleiman, who was born in the city of Zahleh, the capital of the Beqaa governorate.
In an interview with ANBA, the businessman said he hadn’t seen in Brazil the innovations that were already available in Arab markets. “The consumer is more demanding and wants different things. That’s why really different things from Italy, Portugal and Spain are coming. The healthy food market grew, but nobody was bringing new things from Lebanon, from Dubai. Where were all the novelties, the beautiful packages? Things really changed there. For the restaurants to stay afloat in Lebanon, they need to reinvent themselves, and nobody was brining that here. So that was our role,” he said.
Based on his own perception, Sleiman decided to carry out market surveys and identified the opportunity to start his own food business. So was born the company in 2020, first as an importer and distributor, and then as an online store, too. The name Taybe is Arabic for delight. “It’s a comment we receive a lot on social media from people reviewing our products,” he said, proudly.
Sleiman has lived in Brazil for 30 years. Before investing in the importer, he had worked and settled in the telecommunications industry. It was only in 2022 that Sleiman decided to study the opportunities in the food industry. “In the middle of the pandemic we had all these ideas and started doing research in both Lebanon and Brazil. We started by the labels, to fit into Brazilian requirements, we hired a nutritional consulting firm, wrote them in Portuguese. It was a large investment to take it from the plant there and adapt to the Brazilian market,” he said.
Premium and health products
After all this work was done, the businessman chooses traditional brands from Lebanon and makes agreements with them. The importer works not only on the logistics of bringing the items to Brazil but also in the curatorship and adaptation process to the local market. The target audience of the importer is the consumer of emporiums, between middle and high classes. The focus is taking premium products to them. There are now over 200 items in the line. Products include seasonings like zaatar and sumac, olives and canned goods.
Another point the brands looks to stress is the healthy appeal of products sold. “Our line is focused on natural products. For example, we have a sweet called Halawi. Taybe was the first to bring Halawi bars (to Brazil), with seven flavors, like chocolate, pistachio, orange, vanilla and others, all sugar free,” he explained.
Online store
To expand the work of the importing business, around 2021 and 2022 he decided to establish an online store aimed at reaching the cities in the interior of the country. “We wanted to serve in the minimum time possible both the colony and Brazilians who enjoyed Arab culture. So we decided to make an online store to reach small towns and those who wanted to buy these products, and we made a partnership with large delivery firms,” Sleiman said.
The platform launch featured a promotion focused on social media, as well as a work with Lebanese chefs. “They prepared several meals with products by Taybe. So with this promotion, our social media grew sharply,” the founder said.
Taybe has now its own seasoning brand. The firm will take this and other brands to the Americas’ leading food fair Apas Show. The event takes place between May 15 to 18 in the city of São Paulo and have a stand organized by the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC), where Taybe will be an exhibitor. The company sent a representative to another relevant industry show, Gulfood, which took place in the United Arab Emirates in February and whose turnout exceeded the businessman’s expectations.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
