Alpargatas renews contract with Mizuno

The footwear manufacturer Alpargatas renewed, for over 26 years, the exclusive contract to manufacture and sell Japanese products in Brazil and Mizuno other seven countries of Latin America. The company will expand the ability of sports shoes factory located in Santa Rita (PB) and plan to take the products from Mizuno to Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile in 2015.
The initial contract is for 13 years, renewable for another 13 years. According to Ferdinand Beer, Director of sporting goods of Alpargatas, the partnership also provides the option of expansion to Mexico, Peru and Colombia, a project that must not be touched immediately.
Currently, Mizuno's products are marketed exclusively by Alpargatas only in Brazil and in Argentina.
The sporting goods segment has had a prominent performance in Sneakers, whose main brand is the Flip-flops, sandals. In the first nine months of last year, the sporting goods accounted for 37 percent of Alpargatas's recipe-r $ 2.5 billion in total in the period, three percentage points above the slice recorded a year earlier.
Today, Mizuno is the biggest sports brand of Sneakers, who owns the Topper and the Queen, in addition to being licensed from Timberland. Second Beer, the brand Mizuno presented average annual growth of 40% in the last five years.
Only 8% of footwear sold by Alpargatas in Brazil are manufactured in the country. In the case of branded clothing, this slice reaches 50%. With the renewal of the contract, the Alpargatas intends to invest in the expansion of production capacity of sports shoes factory located in Santa Rita (PB). Part of the investments should be started this year, says Beer, which doesn't reveal values.
Mizuno, considered aspirational brand among young people, is known for its high-performance footwear for racing. In smaller proportion, is also used for soccer and sports practitioners of courts, two segments in which the Alpargatas should invest more from now on, says Beer.
According to the Executive, because of the World Cup, the Mizuno brand marketing budget will be raised from 5% to 7% of the brand's sales this year. Besides playing sporting events, mostly racing marathons, the Mizuno also sponsors players Hulk and Dede, the Brazil national football team.