THABA
Continues its market success
By: Minerva
Hernandez Basso
A
CubaNews translation by And Portela.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
OPTIONS,
The Financial, Commercial and Tourist weekly of Cuba
September 4, 2005
http://www.opciones.cubaweb.cu/leer.asp?idnuevo=1513
Every year it presents to collections, a winter and summer collection, with different kinds of leather goods and costume jewelry; most outstanding are the backpacks that are its star products.
As of Monday, when Cuban schools open the doors for the new academic course, Thaba products are evaluated. It is a Cuban label in the national market with products in the fields of leather goods and costume articles. Surely the student body will have many creative lines developed with the label, such as backpacks, purses, bags, valises, attaché cases, belts and wallets.
This success is supported by the work carried out for these past years by the Empresa Productora y Comercializadora de Artículos de Talabartería y Bisutería (Production and Commercializing Company of Leather and cosmetic goods) of the Light Industry. Their work is made with total rigor and has received an award from the sector and the country and is also a sign of quality that delivers on time, guaranteeing that company of national industry.
A novel style of work, supported by its power in the internal market and, according to Obdulio Rodríguez, general director of Thaba, the success is mostly due to the variety of products and the advances in the design lines, competitiveness and great acceptance in the shop chains and clients. They also have attractive prices.
A new organization in the country, concentration of products, introduction of new technologies, the incorporation of human resources with a broad experience and great capability in work as well as the quality of the products and the stability of supplies of raw materials are advantages that the general director explained.
“The designs are not repeated and each is offered in three or four colors. We are also guided by market studies in each region of the country because they are typically tasteful and are offered at different prices”, Rodríguez affirmed. Another point has placed Thaba in the Combell company group (Leather and Shoes of MINIL) is the effectiveness of delivery guaranteed by the Transport Base Company Unit through a series of trucks and vehicles for direct distribution to the shops, according to the set requests made.
It applies different forms of distribution. In Havana, for example, the merchandize leaves directly from the central warehouse to the shops. In other territories in the country there are two branches; one in Ciego de Avila and another in Holguín and according to the heads of the company there are no delays or any other difficulties in deliveries because the logistics are well organized.
The salespersons play an important role in this work because, in addition to the contracts that specify all the details of sales and purchases, they directly visit the shops, do follow-up and survey the behavior of their products.
The business sector of the country and state institutions have also benefited from the efficient work of Thaba because they can make specific requests according to their needs and interests. Consequently these entities avoided the use of imports.
Thaba is made up of 16 base company units. It has five productive workshops in Havana and five services units, two warehouses; one of raw materials and the other of finished articles. It has a transportation base for distribution. The company also has a workshop in Pinar del Río and another in Las Tunas. However, it sometimes uses workshops of other entities to increase their products depending on the growth of demand.
The industrial capabilities allow yearly productions of three million backpacks, a star product of the company. Currently it is producing a million and a half. All its workshops are designed to accept any kind of production related to the specialty of the company that, this year, plans to sell articles in the country for a sum of 11 million Cuban convertible pesos.
COLLECTIONS
The company plans are not made according to the interests or wishes of the producers. Quite the contrary, they use novel techniques of marketing to maintain their articles in the market. The shops in foreign currency, for example, promote two different collections every year (winter and summer) that are previously checked by an internal committee of purchases and later, they are presented to the clients.
With this system the shop chains can chose the models they are interested in. The other products are made in accordance to specific requests by clients.
Specifically, during the summer months there is a rise in sales when schoolbags are in great demand. The summer bags this year, with 200 different models, was greatly accepted by the public specially the beach lines with modern and colorful designs.
The work by the group of market technology is important through their intense and serious work with comparison techniques of sales in the past years and knowing how they move, what is improving and what should be changed.
Surveys are made around the country of the products on offer with the people in the streets, in the shops and the clients. These analyses allow information on the degree of acceptance of our products as well as the market characteristics.
In the opinion of the heads of the entities, the work of sales and market technology are linked because together they offer information for projects and sales policies in general. For this reason, emphasis is placed on quality and then on the study of competition; how the price policy and management by the salespersons of the entities become more professional.
Another favorable point is the seriousness in delivery of the product, its correct presentation, the packaging, the protection, all leads Thaba to occupy an important space in the market and requests by clients are on the rise. It is not chance that sales of the collections are almost completely sold out.
An important group of designers also play their part in the success of the company. According to Yohosory Cardo Sardinas, head design specialist, before producing each collection they study and have feedback from the market studies carried out by the group of market technology and the sales group to learn of the taste and necessities of the population. They also resort to research in the catalogues that reflect international tendencies that are later adapted to the idiosyncrasy and preferences of the Cubans.
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5 de Noviembre del 2005 |
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