Brazilian Footwear: How was this beginning since you had no previous connection with the sector?
Gracia: We learned, for six months we worked in the sector. My brother went to sell shoes to the factories in Birigui and I went to work in the factories for free, before we started our factory. As the factories belonged to my father's friends, I went through practically all the industrial areas. At that time I also took the cutting, sewing and assembly courses at Birigui's Senai. After this period of six months, we set up the factory in the back of our parents' house. After three years of Kidy, I moved to Franca to take the technologist couse in footwear for a year.

Brazilian Footwear: What else caught your attention in the footwear production process?
Gracia: I've always liked to do innovative things and what struck me the most is that there was a space for it in the market. They all did it in a similar way. So, we started creating different things, so much so that we were the biggest licensee of Turma da Monica when no one was licensing. That's how Kidy got stronger, too. So, this delighted me and after I figured out how to make shoes, in a technically correct way, it became even easier. And in this context we also develop our technologies. Today, we have a pull together with IBTeC (Brazilian Institute of Technology of Leather, Footwear and Artifacts) of technologies that only Kidy has. It is a differential, they are all certified and this has brought us many differentials, mainly because we respect the healthy growth of children's feet.
Brazilian Footwear: Kidy started at the back of your dad's house with seven pairs a day. What are the company's numbers today?
Gracia: We have two plants, one in Birigui and another in Três Lagoas, in Mato Grosso do Sul. We are talking about approximately 1.2 thousand direct employees and a daily production of 15 thousand pairs. Currently, we export to 40 countries and are present in about 8.5 thousand points of sale in Brazil. Our main overseas markets are Latin America, the United Arab Emirates and North Africa. These are the numbers that we manage today and it is gratifying to see in these 34 years the growth, structuring of the company and now we are going through this new phase that is artificial intelligence, digitization, online sales, changing the profile of the shopkeeper.

Brazilian Footwear: Talking about artificial intelligence, digitization. How has this interfered with the business and how are you adapting?
Gracia: I have two views on this matter. The first is that the multi-brand store, the shoe store, which is our largest distribution chain, is experiencing two very interesting factors. They are realizing that having high amount stocks is a problem. For this reduction of inventories, we have created here within the factory faster process flows, in which we can supply, in Brazil, the customer in the replacement within the same month. In this way, we are bringing to the shopkeeper solutions to the problems that are beginning to hinder them as entrepreneur. The other issue is the digitization of the sale. We are showing to the shopkeepers that they have to use the digital resources, lives, social networks for regional dissemination of their store. What works is regionalized marketing. So we are also showing the shopkeeper this, encouraging them to do it. All this has been bringing our positioning of support to our distributor who is this shopkeeper.
Brazilian Footwear: And in the products, how have you inserted these questions?
Gracia: We have a development methodology through price pyramids. Price pyramids are market ranges by category. I have a mix of products that meet these economic classes, within the store profile that I am. We have this as a focus and we work very well on this, what has happened is that we have been reducing our product catalog so that companies become more efficient and achieve a better cost. This is another characteristic that we've been seeing in the market: collections are getting smaller, but more assertive.
Brazilian Footwear: As you mentioned, technologies are one of the Kidy's great differentials. I would like you to explain two of them.
Gracia: One of the technologies that is in practically 100% of our collection is Respitec. It keeps children's feet at 36 degrees regardless of the amount of time they are wearing them. That is, it does not warm the foot through air exchange that causes children not to have damp feet, which does not give it a bad smell and also does not proliferate fungi and bacteria. Certified by IBTeC, Respitec is a strong point of ours in the market and with our audience. Another technology we have developed is on sole and insole design and is called Equilíbrio. It makes the child feel almost as barefoot and this makes them more confident when learning to walk. And with that, they fall 30% to 40% less in this learning process. It is also a very strong technology of ours that brings security and is being expanded to all lines from sizes 16 to 22.
Brazilian Footwear: And how are these technologies created, developed?
Gracia: Technologies emerge as problem solvers, we study the problems. What is the problem with the child's foot at age X? It is fungi and bacteria, ringworm and bad smell. So, let's find out how to combat this, which in this case, is by having a dry foot. It's very much a mindset from a problem standpoint. If you have a shoe, why can't it fix a problem that happens in a child's foot. If sweating is a problem, let's create a shoe that makes the foot not sweat.

Brazilian Footwear: As a percentage, how much of the production is destined for the domestic market and how much for the foreign market?
Gracia: Currently, 9% of production is exported. Incredibly, these 9% value the technologies we have more. But this is a characteristic that we need to change so that the shopkeeper can sell more added value. The digital sale, it also facilitates this because in e-commerce it is possible to add a video of the technology, medical testimony, information that the mother, aunt or grandmother watch before buying.
Brazilian Footwear: Now speaking of BFSHOW, you have participated since the first edition. I wanted to know how important the fair is to Kidy's strategy.
Gracia: For us BFSHOW is a grateful satisfaction for several factors. Strategically, it takes place on the right dates and because it is really done by professionals who care about the situation of the production chain, the fair is at the correct time. The second point is this international partnership that will increasingly transform this fair into a world event. That's what we really need and it's already going down that road. Third point is the strengthening of the coming of distributors for a more simplified logistics issue.
Brazilian Footwear: About 2024, how should Kidy end the year? What about the projections for 2025?
Gracia: This year, we will grow 15% in revenue and the projected for 2025 is a new growth of 12%. We are in a market rescue, after the pandemic we lost a lot of market and now we are in a recovery job. In addition, we are eliminating customers who do not have a profitability. Our focus is that everyone wins, both industry and shopkeepers, we are pursuing this qualitative growth. In 2024, we will tie with what we had before the pandemic. From 2025, we will indeed have growth.

Brazilian Footwear: Since you talked about growth, do we have prospects for investments in the plants, hiring?
Gracia: What we are doing is investing in equipment that eliminates overhead costs. For example, all the internal logistics of the factory, such as the transport of packaging, boxes, ready-made products, from next year will be done by robotic conveyors. They will do this internal movement within the factory. Our search, today, for investments is in this sense, to gain efficiency. Another investment we are making is in our points of sale, creating our health and comfort spaces within the stores. This investment that we are already making represents around 5 to 8% of revenue.
Brazilian Footwear: Since you work a lot with technology, I wanted to know if you suffer from pirated shoes?
Gracia: The problem we have is precisely the piracy of technology. We develop a technology and some competitors copy it. There's that and as much as we have patented, registered, they try to cheat and launch to compete with us. When we see it, we denounce the technology, as well as the characters that are used without licensing. Since in this way they also compete with us using a character that they do not have a license to use, which occurs a lot in the children's universe.
Brazilian Footwear: Finally, I would like you to say in a word what BFSHOW means for the Brazilian footwear industry.
Gracia: BFSHOW is essential for the Brazilian footwear industry because we can not do without it, it is essential for our success.