Textiles and footwear project good sales until December
Valor Econômico - 07/02/2008
The foreign market is still a disturbance, but the domestic market helped the manufacturers of footwear and textiles end the first half of the year with good sales performance and plan a good second half. Notwithstanding the increase of inflation, the footwear companies arrived at Francal (Brazilian International Fair of Footwear), which started yesterday and will be held until Friday in the pavilion of Anhembi, in São Paulo, with good forecasts for the sales of the spring-summer collections in the second half of the year. 4.2 million pairs of shoes were sold from January to June (75% in the domestic market), and the forecast is to end the year with almost 8 million pairs, compared to 7 million in 2007. According to West Coast's marketing manager Sérgio Baccaro Júnior the decision of carrying out the winter sales promotions in the beginning of the season to reduce the need of granting very high discounts later on is contributing for the good performance. The company keeps the forecast of growing 10% this year over the 2.4 million pairs sold in 2007, 30% of which intended for the foreign market. Regarding the income, it may grow above such index due to the launching of higher added value products, explains the manager. For Lepper, an industry of bed, bath and table wear, with headquarters in Joinville (SC), the first half of 2008 resulted in sales 10% higher than the same period of the previous year's. Zeno Fischer, director of controls and planning of the company, says the result was benefited by the increase of credit offer in retail, by the improvement of the average salary of the people, and by the fall of unemployment. Besides, the weather also contributed. For the officer, the second half should show even stronger sales than the first half due to the typical seasonality of commerce that sells more to the end-of-the-year's celebration parties. He expects growth between 15% and 20% in the sales of the second half compared to the same period of 2007. Fischer says that there already is, in fact, acceleration in the July orders that point that it will happen. The orders are 15% stronger than those from July of last year. In the evaluation of the president of Buettner, João Enrique Marchewsky, the industry of bed, bath and table wear, headquartered in Brusque (SC), had a good first half if only the performance of the domestic market were considered. There was an increase of 6.5% in sales in the country. On the other hand, the sales' results of the company withdrew nearly 15% in the first half due to the foreign market. For Marchewsky, there is, however, a slight deterioration of this scenario in the last 45 days.