Based in Brazil and with more than 140 franchise stores worldwide, Carmen Steffens is the fashion leader in women’s footwear, handbags and accessories markets.
June, 2009
By Roberta Facuri – ABCC
Carmen Steffens was founded in 1993 by Mario Spaniol whose aim was to create a female fashion brand that would attend to women’s boldest desires. In 1996, the company decided to distribute their products through franchise channel, and after ten years (2006), Carmen Steffens was considered the best franchise firm by Getulio Vargas foundation which develops an annual research about this type of distribution channel.
Carmen Steffens is known today as a high quality and desirable brand that has an exclusive products and unique Brazilian style. The shoes and accessories are designed with handcrafted adornments, hand stitched embroidery, crystals with a strong attention to details. Carmen Steffens products are inspired by the lifestyle of the fashion savvy, discriminating, and confident woman.
The regular collection has a mix of more than 3,000 different colours and material options which enables them to provide an enormous variety of styles to attend all markets needs (domestic and international). The head office and factory are located in a city at the countryside of Sao Paulo state called Franca, which is known as strong exporter of leather and male shoes. Therefore, the company is considered as one of the most efficient manufacturers of footwear and leather goods in Brazil, and is capable of producing different collections simultaneously (winter and summer).
All leather is supplied by Couroquimica (www.couroquimica.com.br), one of the largest leather tanneries in Latin America and a part of the Carmen Steffens group.
Carmen Steffens is already in Australia with stores in Perth and Canberra and they have plans to expand to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast, and Adelaide in the next five years.
For more information, check the Australian website –
www.carmensteffens.com.au .
