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Published
May 12, 2010
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The difficulty in entering the European market

Published
May 12, 2010

What fashion entrepreneur has not dreamed of seeing his collection being paraded in France? When you think of fashion, Paris comes to mind for most people. Charming, refined, birthplace of many great brands that have made history in the fashion world, the French capital is the target of many Brazilian companies. But wouldn’t it be better to focus on the booming Brazilian market? Opinions are divided.


Patricia Motta, in the Minas Trend Preview: products are expensive to the external market


In Minas Trend Preview, one of the largest trade shows in Brazil, which was held in April in the city of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais state, more than 200 brands of shoes, accessories, clothing and jewelry were exhibiting their products. The commercial manager of a showroom with 12 brands in Sao Paulo, Claudia Chaluleu, attested that it is very difficult to penetrate the international market due to the high cost of Brazilian goods, which are not competitive out there. She is accustomed to receiving international buyers at her showroom looking for new brands. "They come here, they love the collections, but they don’t buy anything, because they consider it too expensive", she says.

As an example, she cites the brand Patrícia Motta, whose speciality is leather working. A basic leather jacket costs R$ 800 (350 euros) for the wholesaler. To compensate for taxes from the international transaction, it would be necessary to sell it at 3.5 times that price. This means that the same jacket would be sold to final consumers for more than 1000 euros. "Just imagine, we would compete with an Armani jacket, for example. There's no way of doing it", sighs Claudia.

This was the view shared by eight of the ten brands interviewed by FashionMag.com. Patricia Roscoe goes beyond though; after having participated in a few shows in Spain, she already had some regular clients, until the day she saw all her jewelry copied by a Spanish company. Indignant, she decided to return to Brazil. Today, she has a factory with 60 employees that only focusses on the domestic market. "When one focuses on the external market, we end up losing good internal customers. Why should we look abroad if domestic consumption is so warm?", asks Patricia.

On the other hand, according to Tatiana Gorentzvaig, Brazilian products are very well received in Europe if they have a unique appeal. Her shoe company has taken part in the biggest trade shows in the world: Babulake in England, and Seven in New York, and has featured in the major Fashion Weeks: Miami, New York and Milan. About 40% of the production was oriented toward the external market. Until the day that the economic crisis broke out and she lost almost all of her customers. She was forced to close the factory and start again from scratch. Her handmade shoes were sold between R$ 350 to R$ 900 (150 to 400 euros). "The value was never a problem. I sold well because I had a differentiated product. I think we just lack creativity in Brazil. The rest will come."

The journalist was invited to cover the event by the Brazilian Textile and Apparel Industry, through the program TexBrasil.

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