19 Jun 2017
Shoes Financial Manager has "calculated " cork fashion
Daniela Sá quit her job in a footwear company in order exercise her knack for design. The creative from Santa Maria da Feira is aiming at foreign markets and increasing production.
Despite always having had a knack for design, her training in management and marketing led Daniela Sá to postpone meeting her destiny. She started in 2006, eight years before launching her business, while she was still employed at the financial department of a footwear company, and began experimenting during her night classes in leather design, moulding and fashion design.
At the turn of the Millennium, the creative from Santa Maria da Feira quit her job, spent a month in a trends school in Milan and, back home, started developing collections and probing the market, as well as plotting marketing and communication strategies. This path led her to her "cork fashion” project, as she describes Najha, which produces bags, belts, small leather accessories, footwear and, more recently, also clothes, like trousers, skirts.
This 40 year-old yoga enthusiast, who loves animals and owns several cats, now leads a team of four that develops her "eco-luxury concept” at her São João de Ver studio, in a municipality that is famed for its cork industry. She is close to her suppliers, and the clothes and footwear production, as it demands specific machinery, is subcontracted in the area. Besides its main brand, this Northern company, founded in April 2014 also developed "Corkwingsby Najha", a line of smaller products with a lower price range and greater rotation, which directly targets the tourism market. Purses and phone pouches are some of the products, which are a response to "requests from some costumers" and which makes the best of the available materials.
Targeting Eastern Europe and private labels
As the company’s sole shareholder, Daniela Sá has already invested around 70 thousand euros and has "no doubt" that her academic and professional experience in management and marketing helped her "a lot” to withstand the initial difficulties, as well as to consolidate a project that, on average and for the final costumer, sells purses for 100 to euros and footwear for between 120 and 180 euros.
Online sales only represent 1% of the total, which in 2016 reached 150 thousand euros, and which were made in leather goods shops and multi-brand shoe shops and shops specializing in cork products. All over Portugal, but also in shops in Spain, Germany and the Czech Republic, which represent a quarter of the turnover. She has made the "most recent contacts” in China and the Arab markets, thus strengthening her international investment.
After entering the merchandising segment to serve companies that want to personalize gifts for their companies, the manager is preparing to "open doors to private label”, making the best of her studio’s staff and resources in order to manufacture products for other brands.
25% IN EXPORTS
Najha had a turnover of around 150 mil euros in 2016. A quarter of that amount came from the German, Spanish and Czech markets.
2010 CHANGE OF COURSE
It was at the start of the decade that Daniela Sá quit her job in footwear and made a definitive investment in her project, which began in 2014.
15 COMPETING FOR A SPOT IN SILICON VALLEY
Negócios is showing you the 15 finalists of the award launched by the Portuguese-American Foundation for Development and EY Consultants. The winner will have the opportunity to be immersed in a Californian incubator.
Wearing, loving and drawing with a vegetal origin
The Northern brand’s apparel line is one of its differentiation factors, as its target-public cares about design and materials.
THE COMPETITION MAKES NO CLOTHES AND IS NOT VEGAN
Among her largest competitors there are brands that use cork as the main material of their collections, like Rutz, Pelcor or Artelusa. However, Daniela Sá points out that, besides having a "completely different" line of design, those brands do not have a vegan concept, nor an apparel line.
A DANDY STYLE OUTSIDE THE STORES
Fashion lovers, with a "special touch for the dandy style", and aged between 25 and 55: that’s how the manager identifies her target-public.
Valuing cork and Najha’s design are other common attraction factors for customers.
BUYS: FROM CORK TO HOOKS
Cork fabric is supplied by several local warehouses. When she needs larger quantities, she goes directly to the factories.
Organic cotton, rings, hooks, arrows, loops and logos are some of the other materials that the company purchases.
The challenge is to create that click: "It’s cute, I want it!"
Najha is closing a deal with a US importer, and orders have already been received.
Why do you want to invest in the United States?
What is the plan?
We are starting with online promotion. And then we will have support from a local representative. We have not signed any papers yet, but it is an import firm run by Portuguese, who create a link between Portuguese products and the US market. It is still very recent, but some orders have already been placed.
What are the challenges posed by that market for Najha?
The biggest challenge is to create the right marketing strategy. I want to focus on that because, having defined our target-public, we can reach that differentiation, no doubt about that.. The challenge is to create that click that makes people look and say "This is good, this is cute, I want it!"
Despite always having had a knack for design, her training in management and marketing led Daniela Sá to postpone meeting her destiny. She started in 2006, eight years before launching her business, while she was still employed at the financial department of a footwear company, and began experimenting during her night classes in leather design, moulding and fashion design.
At the turn of the Millennium, the creative from Santa Maria da Feira quit her job, spent a month in a trends school in Milan and, back home, started developing collections and probing the market, as well as plotting marketing and communication strategies. This path led her to her "cork fashion” project, as she describes Najha, which produces bags, belts, small leather accessories, footwear and, more recently, also clothes, like trousers, skirts.
This 40 year-old yoga enthusiast, who loves animals and owns several cats, now leads a team of four that develops her "eco-luxury concept” at her São João de Ver studio, in a municipality that is famed for its cork industry. She is close to her suppliers, and the clothes and footwear production, as it demands specific machinery, is subcontracted in the area. Besides its main brand, this Northern company, founded in April 2014 also developed "Corkwingsby Najha", a line of smaller products with a lower price range and greater rotation, which directly targets the tourism market. Purses and phone pouches are some of the products, which are a response to "requests from some costumers" and which makes the best of the available materials.
Targeting Eastern Europe and private labels
As the company’s sole shareholder, Daniela Sá has already invested around 70 thousand euros and has "no doubt" that her academic and professional experience in management and marketing helped her "a lot” to withstand the initial difficulties, as well as to consolidate a project that, on average and for the final costumer, sells purses for 100 to euros and footwear for between 120 and 180 euros.
Online sales only represent 1% of the total, which in 2016 reached 150 thousand euros, and which were made in leather goods shops and multi-brand shoe shops and shops specializing in cork products. All over Portugal, but also in shops in Spain, Germany and the Czech Republic, which represent a quarter of the turnover. She has made the "most recent contacts” in China and the Arab markets, thus strengthening her international investment.
After entering the merchandising segment to serve companies that want to personalize gifts for their companies, the manager is preparing to "open doors to private label”, making the best of her studio’s staff and resources in order to manufacture products for other brands.
25% IN EXPORTS
Najha had a turnover of around 150 mil euros in 2016. A quarter of that amount came from the German, Spanish and Czech markets.
2010 CHANGE OF COURSE
It was at the start of the decade that Daniela Sá quit her job in footwear and made a definitive investment in her project, which began in 2014.
15 COMPETING FOR A SPOT IN SILICON VALLEY
Negócios is showing you the 15 finalists of the award launched by the Portuguese-American Foundation for Development and EY Consultants. The winner will have the opportunity to be immersed in a Californian incubator.
Wearing, loving and drawing with a vegetal origin
The Northern brand’s apparel line is one of its differentiation factors, as its target-public cares about design and materials.
THE COMPETITION MAKES NO CLOTHES AND IS NOT VEGAN
Among her largest competitors there are brands that use cork as the main material of their collections, like Rutz, Pelcor or Artelusa. However, Daniela Sá points out that, besides having a "completely different" line of design, those brands do not have a vegan concept, nor an apparel line.
A DANDY STYLE OUTSIDE THE STORES
Fashion lovers, with a "special touch for the dandy style", and aged between 25 and 55: that’s how the manager identifies her target-public.
Valuing cork and Najha’s design are other common attraction factors for customers.
BUYS: FROM CORK TO HOOKS
Cork fabric is supplied by several local warehouses. When she needs larger quantities, she goes directly to the factories.
Organic cotton, rings, hooks, arrows, loops and logos are some of the other materials that the company purchases.
The challenge is to create that click: "It’s cute, I want it!"
Najha is closing a deal with a US importer, and orders have already been received.
Why do you want to invest in the United States?
I’ve had people in the US, who got acquainted with our brand through our site or Facebook page, calling me and saying that they’ll be coming to Portugal and asking in what stores they can find our products. That is really interesting and it shows that there’s a lot of potential in that market. It is a market that is eager for natural things, with animal-free materials, and a huge vegan community.
What is the plan?
We are starting with online promotion. And then we will have support from a local representative. We have not signed any papers yet, but it is an import firm run by Portuguese, who create a link between Portuguese products and the US market. It is still very recent, but some orders have already been placed.
What are the challenges posed by that market for Najha?
The biggest challenge is to create the right marketing strategy. I want to focus on that because, having defined our target-public, we can reach that differentiation, no doubt about that.. The challenge is to create that click that makes people look and say "This is good, this is cute, I want it!"
Source:
In, Jornal de Negócios