The risky decision Mariana de Páramo made in 2019, when she accepted a proposal from a Brooklyn showroom to distribute her children's clothing brand Mamitis in a small space in New York, continues to bring benefits to this entrepreneur.
New York has been the brand's springboard to jump to Canada and Israel, and this year it will land in Mexico. Furthermore, it will do so by initiating a master franchise "that reflects the DNA of Mamitis" with the local investment group ISI, dedicated to the development and promotion of real estate, industrial, and commercial projects. "We met in the New York store because they were interested in joining our network of distributors, and the project has gone further," says Mariana de Páramo.
The new business line will begin in autumn, with the inauguration of the first store in the capital, Mexico City, specifically in the Lomas Chapultepec neighborhood, one of the most exclusive areas of the city that is part of the commercial axis of the new financial district Central Business District, where the country's most prestigious boutiques and restaurants are located. The forecast is to open four more, "but we want to be cautious, go little by little, we know that in Mexico there is a customer target that already buys from us online and values the brand, the made in Barcelona-Spain, because we offer style, price, and quality," she explains.
Mamitis has chosen Mexico "because of the number of orders we constantly receive through the website and social media; Mamitis is a great draw among Mexican women, many asked us for a physical point of sale in their country," comments De Páramo.
This lawyer by profession, with a professional career in a prominent international consultancy where she worked for some fashion brands, decided to start her business eleven years ago "because I had always had the idea of bringing a project of my own to fruition," and at that time "I had just become a mother and wanted to dedicate myself to something that would allow me to balance work and personal life"; and she conceived Mamitis jointly with her mother Mariana Gómez, now retired from the day-to-day business.
In these eleven years, Mariana de Páramo has laid the foundations of a business based on online and multi-brand distribution, prioritizing quality and locations. Therefore, "in Barcelona we will continue with only one own direct sales store to the public, the one on Marià Cubí street, where it all began," because "we have very loyal distributors and clientele whom we take care of to the maximum."
The expansion will come "basically from international markets" in countries where habits and preferences when dressing newborns "are similar to ours" and also through new distributors. Although "if the franchise model works in Mexico, it will undoubtedly be a scalable model and a gateway to the South American market, where we already sell in a multi-brand establishment in Venezuela."
The brand has assumed that it is in a segment, that of children's fashion for babies, where not everything goes, where "fabrics must be of quality, where artisanal production is prioritized, where 100% of the fabrics are organic (cotton, linen, knitwear)." "We work with external local workshops, all from Catalonia, with 20 people and now we have hired three more to cover the Mexican market." The workshops are responsible for the design, pattern making and confection "with some handmade garments" of the more than 3,000 garments and accessories for newborns that are sold in each seasonal collection, which are made twice a year. Production is adjusted, "we don't have too much stock," because pieces can be replenished, if necessary, in about 20 days.
The entry into Mexico and the expansion of the distributor network in Europe, where it already has four new points of sale in London and others in Italy, will increase business by 15% in Europe in 2022, and globally it expects to double its turnover to one million euros, according to the entrepreneur's estimates.
The company expects to reach one million euros in turnover in 2022Mariana de Páramo and the team of six employees pay special attention to their national and international distributors who, together, generated 35% of the business in 2021. This has led the brand to to elaborate collections Mamitis forfor some of them and "it will be a line of work that we will promote with the design and production of personalized capsules," like those they have made for Paramamá, the maternity fashion brand and baby accessories.
In parallel, Mamitis continues to firmly bet on ecommerce, with its own online store in Spanish and English and more than one hundred thousand followers on Instagram. Digital sales generate 25% of its income and sales made in the physical store in Barcelona 30%.
35% of the business comes from multi-brand stores and 25% are digital salesLikewise, they do not stop innovating in products with the elaboration of baby baskets, clothes with personalized embroidery with the name of the newborn, garments ofcashmere, but also design and manufacture of knitted garments with thicker yarn aimed at the colder markets of northern Europe where mothers are not in favor of dressing newborns in wool ---as is the case in Germany---.
Mamitis fashion offers sizes from 0 ---even some smaller garments--- up to 2 years, with the design and manufacture of two collections a year and "some shorter series aimed at Christmas or Black Friday sales", with garments "designed with uniqueness, full of details, very comfortable because they are made without seams, with 100% organic cotton for fabrics and knits, and in linen and natural fibers for summer". This is how Mariana de Páramo defines Mamitis, her personal and personalized project.