The Italian industry in the textile and fashion sector is internationally known for its style and quality, the result of know-how and skills developed over time which distinguish this area as one of the sectors of excellence of Made in Italy. In order to sustain this industry and ensure its stable growth also in the future, it is vitally important to identify new growing markets that are able to boost this sector, and to properly exploit the opportunities they offer.
In this sense, Brazil represents an ideal market. To confirm this, the Italian Fashion System (SMI), since 2007, has presided over the large South American market by promoting a series of missions aimed at developing and consolidating a professional network, as well as deepening market knowledge in relation to the textile and fashion sector.
The Sistema Moda Italia Federation, with over 2.300 associated companies, represents the textile, fashion and clothing sector which in Italy has almost 60.000 companies active in the area and employs over 510.000 people. Recently, in collaboration with the Ministry of Economic Development and the Agency for the promotion abroad and the internationalization of Italian companies (ex ICE), the SMI commissioned Future Concept Lab and Coletivo Frescobol to carry out a survey on the Brazilian market .
The survey, presented in Milan at the end of September on the occasion of a conference organized by SMI and Intesa San Paolo by representatives of Sistema Moda Italia, Future Concept Lab and Coletivo Frescobol, with the intervention of Ambassador Renan Leite Paes Barreto, Consul General of Brazil in Milan, highlighted the results achieved so far by our national companies active in the textile and fashion sector in Brazil and the current dynamics that distinguish this country's market.
As stated by Paolo Bastianello, Senior Vice President of Sistema Moda Italia, «Brazil is undoubtedly one of the most interesting and potentially most promising markets for the Italian Textile-Clothing-Fashion system. The South American country has one of the fastest growing economies in the world and, both in terms of culture and the consolidated Italian presence (about 30 million people), shows great interest in our products which stand out for their excellent quality and technological innovation».
Brazil, with an estimated GDP growth rate of 2012% for 2,5, has established itself in the global economic scenario as one of the most important emerging markets in recent years. The country is the fifth largest country in the world by population (190 million inhabitants in total) and comprises about half of the total population of Latin America. The demographic analysis of Brazil highlights some important realities: the country boasts a large segment of the population of young age, considering that 50% of its inhabitants are, in fact, between the ages of 15 and 44; the strong concentration of the population in the large cities along the coast of Brazil, such as São Paolo and Rio de Janeiro, is also relevant. The strong economic development that Brazil has enjoyed over the last ten years has allowed approximately 40 million Brazilians to emerge from poverty,expanding the middle class of the country and thus increasing the consumer demand of the domestic market.
Clothing consumption in Brazil has increased consistently and it is estimated that by the end of the year they could reach a total expenditure of 32 billion euros. The survey, tracing an analysis of imported products, especially reveals an increase in the demand for clothing for formal/professional use. As regards the composition of the total expenditure, the largest share of turnover is represented by the women's clothing segment, however children's fashion consumption records higher growth rates.
The research also analyzes the channels through which purchases take place, highlighting that fashion and clothing products are purchased mainly in department stores, but also in multi-brand concepts, equipped with high fashion brands. Another very important distribution channel is represented by websites: considering the average age of the Brazilian population, 28 years, online shopping in Brazil is very widespread and currently relies on over 30 portals that grant national and international companies a direct relationship with final consumers.
Alongside the positive peculiarities that characterize the Brazilian market, there are however obstacles for companies that decide to operate in this market: the duties on imports, as well as the tax pressure indexes, are very high; the management of activities in the Brazilian market is also burdened by shortcomings in the administrative system, as well as by the high cost of credit and the shortage of qualified workforce.
The representatives of Coletivo Frescobol, Mauro Ponzé, and of Future Concept Lab, Francesco Morace, underlined theimportance, for Italian companies active in Brazil, of "making a system" and of encouraging the development of production structures integrated with domestic distribution.
«The future – as stated by Francesco Morace – it will be characterized by a much closer and more trusting relationship not only with the brand but also with the company as a whole. Large companies will have a new role of leadership and social and cultural responsibility, far beyond their product. In this direction, the pilot experience for decades in Brazil has been that of Petrobras, which since its birth on the streets of the country in the years of the slogan "Oil is ours", has always followed the direction of cooperative involvement, social responsibility, of the close relationship with the territory and with the local communities, of managerial and administrative transparency, of cultural investment».
«Brazil and the companies that will want to work in this market - he added - they can follow this path by refining their production and design skills, encountering the spontaneous creativity of Rio de Janeiro and at the same time the systematic and rigorous vision typical of the city of São Paulo. The Quick & Deep paradigm finds nourishment in particular in the fashion and self-care sectors, however moving away from the mythology of the fashion system and the purely imitative and aspirational logic that has characterized the last 10 years of economic and consumption growth in the new Brazil».
