SAO PAULO, Brazil — Artefacto dominates the furniture scene in Brazil with 30 retail outlets, five of them in Sao Paulo in addition to its own manufacturing plant. 

Business is flat in Brazil but is moving forward in the USA, according to Artefacto, even though the USA is on a smaller base compared to Brazil. 

The 35 year old company expanded into the USA about ten years ago under the watchful eye of CEO and owner Paulo Bacchi and continues to ship large quantities of its own furniture lines from Brazil to two Florida based showrooms in Coral Gables and Aventura, 14,000 and 28,000 square foot stores respectively. Paulo Bacchi

Artefacto buys mainly upholstery, specifically unicolored leather and linen in black, white, gray and ecru which are the colors of choice in the Southern Florida and Brazil markets according to an Artefacto spokesman. Large samples in a waterfall rack are located in the back of the Coral Gables showroom. 

Curtain fabrics are not emphazied by Artefacto since the choice of upholstery is to compliment furniture sales. Artefacto does its fabric purchasing under the direction of Iara Liguori in Sao Paulo. She buys high end goods by the piece from all over the world including linens from Belgium; velvets from England and chenille from the USA. Not much is made about China by Artefacto since it features goods from everywhere but China. Southern Brazil prefers velvet while the north prefers linens, an Artefacto representative said. 

“The customer accessorizes the furniture with pillows in different designs but they prefer to keep the upholstery a long time and refresh each year with the anew accessories,” a spokesman said. Artefacto also sews the pillows in Brazil in its own plant.