Brazilians close deals of USD 4,5 million at Colombiatex

With high attendance and dozens of local and international journalists, there were seven fashion shows at Colombiatex 2014 organized by Texbrasil (Brazilian Fashion Industry Internationalization Program, developed by Abit in partnership with Apex-Brasil), from January 21 to 23, in Medellin, Colombia. Looks were made using textile supplies from the 16 Brazilian companies showing at the trade show: Audaces, Canatiba, Cataguases, Cedro, Covolan, Delfa, Doptex, Farbe, PH Fit, Rhodia, Rosset, Santanense, Tavex, Vicunha, Werner and Zanotti. They were designed by three young designers from the BtoBe (Brazilians to Be) talent incubator, the duo of Julia Guglielmetti and Grazi Cavalcanti, who are behind the Gralias brand, and Gabriela Sakate.

With so many eyes on what is new, the Brazilian companies made 1625 contacts with retailers and wholesalers from 13 countries (Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Italy, Peru, Panama, Chile, Bolivia, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras and the United States).The textile companies carried out nearly USD 4.5 million in business over the three days of the trade show, with more than USD 22 million forecast for the next twelve months.

For Rhodia’s Marketing Manager, the buyers are what makes Colombiatex unique: “The trade show is very good with excellent organization, but what really grabs my attention there is the public, the visitors are very qualified. In addition, of course, to the great publicity done by the Program’s international press agency,” adds Mayra Montel, mentioning the PR contracted by Texbrasil to promote Brazilian fashion at the event. “They worked really well publicizing the variety of products in the Brazilian market to the press across Latin America. The trade show was packed”, says.

Agostinho Bernardino, commercial manager for Werner weaving company, thinks that the joint work between businesses and designers drove promotion of the Brazilian textile industry: “the organization of the fashion shows was a great idea for publicizing Brazilian brands”. There were more than thirty international media channels covering the shows, including the El Colombiano and El Tiempo newspapers and the Caracol, Une and RCN TV networks, which were at the event.

Lilian Kaddissi, general manager of Texbrasil, underscored the importance of the trade show: “Colombiatex is one of the most important business platforms for Brazil’s textile industry and is better and better every year. We had a 10% increase in sales at this edition,” she assures.