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Brazilian manufacturers focus on U.S.

By Tom Edmonds -- Furniture Today, September 23, 2001

SAO PAOLO, Brazil — Brazilian furniture manufacturers, whose roots are in European design, are focused on the United States as a market for their furniture.

Encouraged by attractive exchange rates and an organized effort by the Brazilian government to grease the skids of international trade, more and more furniture manufacturers here are redesigning their lines and making overtures to U.S. distributors or retailers.

"As international markets look more and more to outsource production, we can get more and more involved," said Pedro Paulo Pamplono, executive director of Abimóvel, the association of Brazilian furniture manufacturers.

With the blessing and financial support of the Brazilian government, Abimóvel has created Promovel, an agency to promote the country's furniture to international markets. As the leading consumer market in the world, the United States is target No. 1 for Promovel, which brought an international group of buyers, including a handful of Top 100 retailers, to the Fenavem furniture trade show in August.

The show and its exhibitors were geared primarily toward the Brazilian trade, and a couple of U.S. buyers expressed disappointment that the products were not scaled or designed for North American stores. However, with some nosing around, it wasn't hard to find companies capable of producing the commercial looks that sell well in the United States, and several have already established trading beachheads here.

While Brazil does have the advantage of low-cost and abundant labor, the furniture factories here are actually highly modernized, often with the latest European technology. The Brazilian economy "opened" 11 years ago, and in the past five years, many furniture factories, most of which are located in one of five southern states, have invested heavily in production technology.

For now, the greatest strength of the Brazilian furniture industry appears to be in pine furniture, such as bunkbeds and promotional case goods, and in casual furniture from eucalyptus. Dozens of highly automated factories also make ready-to-assemble furniture, but only a small handful of these appear to be focusing on export markets.

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