São Paulo – One of the great distributors and retailers of the Middle East has already started shopping at the 44th International Shoes, Fashion Accessories, Machines and Components Fair (Francal), which began on Tuesday (26), in São Paulo. Abdul Wahab Al Garawi, president of Al Garawi Group, and Enrico Pesallaccia, Business Development manager at the company, are at the fair and have pre-selected the products they liked.
The company sells some 10 million pairs of shoes a year in the Middle East and the focus is on medium- to high-quality shoes. For the purchases at Francal, Abdul says that he is not seeking low prices, but products with quality and design. The company imports renowned brands and is also seeking the best articles in Brazil.
The company is a traditional buyer of Brazilian shoes, but Abdul stated that the volume bought is small and represents just 1% of the total imported. According to the Saudi, Brazilian factories do not take much into consideration the taste of Arab consumers, especially those from Saudi Arabia and Dubai.
The importer, however, says that Brazil is an important supplier to the group and that the only reason for purchases not being bigger is the distance. He said that while he can receive an order from Taiwan in two weeks, from Brazil it takes about two months for the product to arrive. The group imports shoes from over 20 countries, among them Spain, Italy, France, Portugal, China, Taiwan and India. The market is the entire Middle East.
Al Garawi group as a whole operates in several sectors, in wholesale and retail of products like clothes, shoes and accessories. The group also operates in the area of gastronomy and in the real-estate sector. Annual sales, according to information disclosed on the company site, are US$ 120 million. The group has two luxury boutiques, multi brand shops in shopping centres, as well as other enterprises. The organisation was established in 1976, as a small clothes store.
*Translated by Mark Ament
