Baby trousseau for R$ 50 thousand? The formula behind the success of Touché Baby – ISTOÉ DINHEIRO

When Augusta was born, in 1988, she had a sister, later named Touché Baby. What is now an established brand of clothing, accessories and furniture for children, at the time was summed up by the effort of a mother, also Augusta, to create special and unique pieces for her newborn daughter. Good taste was successful and Augusta mother started to produce clothes for family and friends, dressing the next ones with her manual work and dedication. It was a hobby, but gaining shape and scale over time. To meet the growing demand, Augusta set up a factory for the production of sheets and towels. Even with the business already structured, she still served clients at her home, maintaining the profile of a clothing company restricted to friends and friends of friends.

As the brand grew, so did Augusta, who in 1988 was a baby. Since then, she has studied law and economics, building a career apart from her mother’s business. Until the stories crossed. From a conversation with a friend, she began to look more closely at her mother’s activity and saw an untapped potential there. As of 2014, Augustas, mother and daughter, officially joined with the creation of the Touché Baby profile on social networks. They then started to work to expand the brand without losing the essence of care and personalization that gave rise to the story.

With a new office and website, they increased the brand’s online presence and added more agility to the business. With the arrival of the pandemic, the investments proved to have made even more sense and kept Touché Baby on the growth path. “It was a very fruitful moment for us,” said Augusta Mahfuz, the daughter, who is now the company’s CEO. Feeling that it was time to take a step forward, the duo took an old project from paper: opening a bigger and more structured store. As the same health crisis that boosted digital sales also penalized much of traditional commerce, many properties were left vacant, bringing the opportunity that mother and daughter had long dreamed of. Last year, they opened a new space in Jardins, an upscale neighborhood in São Paulo.

INFANTILOID With the same focus on high-income customers, the brand today sells layettes that exceed R$50,000. Its exclusive collections serve children from 0 to 4 years old. In addition to clothes, it offers options for the room, toy and decoration. More sophisticated, the products are not limited to the pattern of pink and blue. “We are not a childish baby brand,” the CEO said. The results, so far, follow the growth of the apparel market. Data from the Brazilian Textile and Apparel Industry Association (Abit) indicate that in 2021 the sector earned more than BRL 194 billion, 20% more than in 2019, the period before the pandemic.

In addition to layettes, the brand develops decorative objects that can accompany the child’s development. Among the products, we highlight the limited edition and numbered paintings by the plastic artist Nazareno. Touché Baby also offers a kind of informal consultancy for new and future mothers to feel welcomed. “Pregnant women come very raw. Sometimes they don’t know how to dress the baby. We take it in our laps.”