COMPANY PROFILE
Cheryl Taylor talks to Marcelo Santos, Senior Manager and Director of ComforSyst SA, creator of the Softwaves brand
Tell us about your company history. What’s the story behind the brand? ComforSyst SA started on May 1970 in Portugal. The family-owned company was set up to manufacture ladies shoes for the domestic market.
In the 80’s, we started to export our footwear, supplying well-known brands to countries overseas. Over the following 20 years our production increased to 1,200 pairs of shoes per day.
At the beginning of the new Millennium, using the wealth of knowledge and experience gained over the past 30 years, we set a new standard of Comfort-Fashion and created Softwaves® on the world market.
By the end of 2010, almost our entire footwear production capacity had been taken up by Softwaves, and it still continues to grow by 10% a year. We currently sell footwear to more than 40 countries around the world.
Do you have a brand philosophy? Our philosophy is to continuously set a new standard in trend-led comfort footwear for ladies on the world market.
What sets your products apart from the rest? The combination we achieve between comfort/technology and design in ladies shoes is unbeatable and places us at the top of the market. Fitting is the basis of everything, particularly for a truly good European shoe. Our 40 years of experience brought us solid know-how and allows us to surprise costumers all the time. Our customers are very demanding, but also very faithful.
Where are you based and where do you manufacture? We are based in Portugal and produce every single shoe on our own production line. All our footwear is100% Made in Portugal.
20 • FOOTWEAR TODAY • MARCH 2012
How many people do you have working for you? Do you have a high turnover of staff? Our company employs around 100 people and our staff turnover is very low. Our staff are the bedrock of the Softwaves family, the pride of our company. We not only assure the best working conditions, but also we invest every year in workshops to improve their social relationships and working techniques. This has played a big part in our success.
How do you market your product(s)? We advertise in the Trade Press, including Footwear Today Magazine, and we currently sell footwear to more than 40 countries worldwide through our network of agents.
Any famous customers? We are spread around the entire world and I would not like to mention any client in particular, as ALL our clients are important to us.
And, the next step? Any plans for the future, new lines, technologies etc? Innovation will always be the key to our success. Our clients know that a Softwaves shoe will improve every season. That is our brand philosophy!
How does the trade contact you? Our customers contact us at the international trade shows or they are contacted by our local reps.
UK Agency: Footwear International Contact: Anthony Freer Email:
anthony.freer@
footwearinternational.co.uk Phone: 0116 259 7427
General contacts: Web:
www.softwaves.pt Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/softwaves®;
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