Tramontina is a true national pride, famous for its knives, cutlery, and cookware. This century-old company has grown from a small ironworks in the interior of Rio Grande do Sul to a multinational present in more than 120 countries. The company was founded in 1911 by Valentim Tramontina and his wife Elisa, both children of Italian immigrants, who began manufacturing horseshoes and performing small repair services for other industries. Years later, amidst a great family tragedy, Elisa managed to keep the business going and her successors played an important role in the growth of the Gaúcho company. What they did not imagine is that in 2022 the company would bill 10.6 billion reais and the Tramontina brand would be known and admired in all four corners of the planet. The company has been gaining year after year participation in markets that until recently were impossible to think of. In the United States, for example, the company is one of the leaders in sales of cookware, and in Germany, the world cradle of cutlery, Tramontina knives are among the best-selling in the country. The group’s new factories produce more than 22,000 items, from its famous cutlery to coffee makers, drills, porcelain tableware, and, believe it or not, even golf carts. Today, in the new series of the curious of the market “Made in Brazil”, we will tell the story of this Brazilian icon and the strategies that led to its great success.

The Rise of Tramontina: From Family Ironworks to Global Giant

The Origins and Italian Immigration

Valentim Tramontina, the founder of Tramontina, was born in 1893 in Bento Gonçalves, in Rio Grande do Sul. He was the son of Enrico and Dominica, immigrants who came from Italy at the time of the great Italian diaspora in the late 19th century. Italy, recently unified, was going through a moment of extreme difficulty. The country was essentially rural, but many workers did not have land to plant, lived in misery, and died of hunger. In less than four decades, 14 million Italians left their country.

Brazil and Labor

Meanwhile, in Brazil, the empire closed the circle against slavery, causing a shortage of labor in the plantations and causing the Brazilian authorities, in response to the problem, to elaborate laws to encourage salaried workers in the country to replace the slaves in the plantations and save areas of the national territory still without economic exploitation. The combination of these two complementary realities there and here made many Italians migrate to Brazil and the Tramontina were one of those families who arrived in the country in 1885.

Arrival and Initial Challenges

They settled in Linha Santa Bárbara, in the municipality of Monte Belo do Sul, in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, and when they arrived there, they came across a thick forest. The first task was arduous: to cut down the trees and make room for labor. The wood from the trunks was used to build the first home of the Tramontina in America. Enrico and Dominica had eight children, the first Tramontina 100% Brazilians.

Valentim Tramontina: The Beginning of the Journey

Valentim was born in 1893. His name, in fact, was Valentino in honor of his grandfather, but no one called him that. He was Valentim to everyone. As a teenager, he learned a trade from his brother. During a year of work, he discovered the secrets of tinsmithing. Here, a small pause in the video to deal with a subject that you have probably heard about the founder of the company: the story that Valentim was a doorman of an adult establishment. There is no exact proof or data obtained at the time.

The Demand for Horseshoes

At that time, there was a lot of demand for horseshoes for horses, they were fundamental for transport and for working in the field, especially in that region that has a very rugged and steep terrain. Valentim, seeing this, learned the trade of blacksmith, a profession that benefited from this abundant demand.

The First Business

In a neighboring colony called Carlos Barbosa, Valentim had a cousin who was also a blacksmith and ran a small but well-equipped workshop. This cousin became ill and had to stop working, so he called Valentim. He proposed that he buy his tools. Tramontina closed his first business in 1910, at the age of 17, he moved to Carlos Barbosa, where he rented a wooden house.

The Tramontina Ironworks

A year later, in 1911, he opened his long-awaited ironworks: the Tramontina ironworks. The moment was perfect. In that year, a train line between Porto Alegre and Caxias do Sul had been inaugurated and a station was built in Carlos Barbosa. Almost overnight, with the construction of the railroad and communication with the world, the quiet locality entered into turmoil. The products from the more distant colonies were sent in large quantities to there, from where they were transported by train to Porto Alegre and from there to wherever there was demand.

The Growth of the Region

In addition, the ease of logistics brought by the railroad attracted many small industries to the region, creating a good economic situation for the city. Valentim took advantage of this moment together with his brother Luiz and one more employee, performing repair services for other industries and manufacturing horseshoes. In February 1920, he married Elisa de seco. The two went to live in the same house where the ironworks operated.

Children and Difficulties

In the following years, they had three children: Henrique in 1921, Nilo in 1923 and Ivo in 1925, the year in which a big problem arose for the small workshop. The main client transferred to Porto Alegre, dispensing with the services of Tramontina. This situation left the family in trouble. In her diary, Elisa Tramontina remembers one of those difficult days. She and her husband were in front of the workshop, looking at a piece of land where there was a solitary tree, trying to encourage each other: “The day will come when my ironworks will be the largest in Rio Grande, our factory will grow beyond the tree”.

The Turnaround with Pocketknives

The solution to the difficulties of the ironworks came from pocketknives. The Italian immigrants, as a result of a tradition passed down from father to son from the average city, were artisans. At that time, there were many pocketknife makers, as they were known in the region, but none of the three blacksmiths of Tramontina knew how to produce the utensil.

Learning to Produce Pocketknives

They learned then with a cousin of Elisa, who gave them some molds of the product and received Valentim and Luiz for 8 days, teaching them how to make a pocketknife. From then on, this became a flagship of the Carlos Barbosa ironworks. In the beginning, the work was rudimentary, done with a hammer and a pedal-powered grindstone, and Elisa helped finish the ox horn handles.

Expansion and New Products

Soon, Valentim began to travel to sell the pocketknives. The products were not so well finished, so he had to sell them cheap. Around 1930, another event helped to boost the Tramontina ironworks. In Porto Alegre, there was a fire in an important company in the cutlery business that worked with high-quality imported products. A large quantity of products, mainly knives, were affected. Valentim heard about the situation and had an idea. He offered to recover the material. So, he began to study the burned knives and learned from them about new models that he could launch.

Focus on Knives

With four or five workers who ate and slept in the Tramontina house, the ironworks prospered again, now focusing on a new product: knives.

Family Tragedies and Elisa’s Strength

Everything seemed to be going very well in the life of the Tramontina, until Henrique, the eldest son of Valentim and Elisa, died at the age of 9 due to sepsis. After this loss, the father Valentim was never the same, he had problems with alcohol, ended up getting sick and died at the age of 46 in 1939.

The Loss of the Second Son

A year later, in 1940, came the third cruel blow: afflicted by a progressive paralysis, Nilo, the second son of the couple, also died, with only 17 years. Elisa Tramontina became the head of a shattered family. Only she and Ivo, the youngest, remained, at 14 years old. In the midst of all this, she thought about closing the ironworks, but decided to run it alone so as not to return to the poverty of her ancestors.

Elisa Takes Command

From then on, the employees began to find Elisa already in the workshop when they arrived to work in the morning. When she finished her shift and said goodbye in the late afternoon, she also continued there. At that time, she had 13 employees. Owner of a large plot of land on one of the main streets of Carlos Barbosa, she divided the property into 13 lots, giving one to each worker as a way to keep them connected to the company.

The Vocation for Sales

From time to time, they fill a suitcase with knives and pocketknives and embarked alone on the train to Porto Alegre. She went from door to door to offer her merchandise and returned to Carlos Barbosa at the end of the day with the suitcase empty and the money needed to pay the employees. During many of her mother’s trips, her son Ivo, who started working as a child turning pastries at the train station, took command of the ironworks.

An Effective Duo

Over time, the two formed a duo. Ivo loved the day-to-day of the factory and the operation of the machines. Elisa discovered her vocation for sales during a trip to the capital. This led to a natural division of tasks. For some years, it worked very well, but they realized, on one of the mother’s trips to Porto Alegre, that the company had a serious problem.

Tax Problems

A tax inspector approached Elisa asking to see the suitcase full of merchandise and requested the corresponding tax documents. The woman did not even know what he was talking about. The operation of the ironworks at that time was not structured from an administrative point of view. No one in the workshop knew the tax regulations. That is, the company could no longer be managed only by the duo. In order not to collapse, they needed to hire someone.

The Arrival of Rui Giazom

Days later, Elisa approached one of her closest friends, Ana Ruiz como Zon, between the church pews to make a request. She wanted Ana’s son, Rui como Zoom, to work in the administrative part of Tramontina. Zoom was a prosperous family, they had a furniture factory with more than 40 employees, one of the biggest businesses in the city, and Rui had graduated from the Faculty of Economics in Porto Alegre.

The Invitation and the Decision

Ana explained that the idea was for Rui to take over the family business. Even so, she took the invitation to the boy. Rui liked the idea. So, in 1949, in addition to doing the accounting for the Escovazon family business, he also started doing it for Tramontina in his free areas. Thus, he and Ivo began to plan the reorganization and expansion of the ironworks.

A Strategic Change

Shortly after, it was so, as as onda decided to leave his position in his family’s company to work full time at Tramontina, which at that time was a much smaller business. The reason for the change, according to Rui himself, was not the belief that Ferrari had a more promising future, but rather because of the affinity he had with Ivo Tramontina.

Consolidation of the Company

In 1954, the company made its first articles of association, registered as Valentim Tramontina widow and Limited Company. The ironworks was renamed Tramontina cutlery and streets with Amazon became a partner. The friendship between the duo had its consecration with the transformation of the partners into compadres.

Compadres and Partners

In 1955, Ivo and Laura had a small Clóvis, the fifth attempt of the couple to have a child and invited Rui and his wife Vanda to be godparents. Years later, in 1959, the gesture was reciprocated, with the Tramontina couple being called to be godparents of the heirs such as Eduardo.

The New Generation in Command

Elisa Tramontina passed away in 1961 and the company passed definitively into the hands of the new generation, represented by the two young partners: Ivo at 36 years old and Rui at 33. Tramontina, who had little education, took more care of production, staying more on the factory floor and living with the employees, because as Amazon, in turn, worked in the administrative and financial areas of the company.

The Leap of Industrialization

In that period, Europe sought to rebuild itself after being devastated by the world war. Brazil saw a leap in industrialization stimulated by the Foundation of the National Steel Company. In the small Carlos Barbosa, Tramontina had two or three dozen workers and some commissioned representatives scattered throughout Rio Grande do Sul. The company made 90% of its revenue from the production of pocketknives at that time.

Factory Expansion

They expanded a cutlery factory that produced knives and pocketknives and opened a new factory in 1959, the forja Sul in the city of Porto Alegre, which was later transferred to the neighboring city of Canoas. This decision was taken because Carlos Barbosa did not have the electricity to produce the forged parts. In 1963, the third factory was opened, a tool industry in Garibaldi, a city neighboring Carlos Barbosa.

The First Exports

In 1969, Tramontina made its first export: a shipment of knives to Chile. Two years later, in 1971, the company, in a somewhat curious move, sent a shipment of surplus stainless steel from Japan to close an order, without knowing exactly what to do with that material. At the suggestion of a friend, they then decided to produce cutlery.

Product Diversification

For this purpose, they opened a new factory in the city of Farroupilha. Five years later, a factory of electrical materials was inaugurated to manufacture products such as sockets and switches. In 1982, the company inaugurated its factory of agricultural and gardening equipment. Tramontina is heating up rapidly with the bet on the diversification of its products and all the success in part is due to an administration model created by the duo that remains to this day.

• Each factory operates as a separate company, with its own goals and processes.

• Above the units is the central office, responsible for approving the plans and determining the guidelines.

• In this sector worked Ivo and Rui.

Clóvis Tramontina and the Commercial Revolution

In 1980, Clóvis Tramontina, son of Ivo, returned to Carlos Barbosa after completing his training in business administration at puc-rs. The young man ended up going through various sectors of the company, but none of them had great prominence. In sales, the company at that time did not have a very active commercial area, but that was about to change.

The Influence of Raul Giacomini

Clóvis, greatly influenced by his uncle and Raul Giacomini, who at that time was commercial director, began to work in this area. In his book, Clóvis tells that at that time one of the main clients of Tramontina, the supermarket Zaffari, was boycotting the suppliers who sold to his competitor Carrefour.

Strategic Vision

The young man then presented his idea to his uncle: “Uncle, we have to sell to Carrefour. The afro and only sell in Porto Alegre to Carrefour, we can even sell in France”. His production was bought and was a prelude to what was to come. Clóvis quickly went on to occupy important positions in the company’s commercial area.

Controversies and Innovations

He took several measures considered controversial internally, such as selling directly to the consumer and no longer just to wholesalers. An important moment in the conquest of the southeast market, the largest in the country, was the entry into the Mapim store chain, considered more sophisticated in the 80s.

The Conquest of Mapim

It was not easy. After several attempts, Cobras managed to have a meeting with the purchasing director, who rejected the various proposals of the young Tramontina, until he got an order: 10 thousand soup plates in three different sizes. The problem is that Tramontina only manufactured one size of soup plate and the Fabril capacity was much smaller than the pedido.

Challenges and Overcoming

Claros returned to Farroupilha and told the news to the director of the factory, who was terrified. This gesture by Clóvis was a Marco for Tramontina and represented a change from a company that was focused on production to a truly market company.

Entry into Pão de Açúcar

But the big turning point was when Tramontina entered the Pão de Açúcar network and the story was very similar. A request larger than the capacity of the company. Seems to have an idea, the request was for 1 million and 200 thousand cutlery. This represented the production of half a year of the company having to deliver that in a few weeks.

Clóvis’s Ascension

Claves was growing in the company Until in 1973 he became National sales manager. His achievements made Tramontina have a much greater production capacity due to the demand created by him. This, is but this also caused some problems. Some items, for example, end up being produced in excess and were stopped in stock in large quantities.

Advertising on Television

Concerned about this situation, Ivo and Rui requested providences to the Young Clovis and the situation brought by him that in the beginning did not convince the old duo was to put advertisements of the company on television. Even against their will, they followed a plan. In 1983, the first commercial of Tramontina went on the air. The consequence of the bets was stocks zeroed in a short time. From then on, the company began to invest in advertising.

The Internationalization of Tramontina

In 1986, two great Marcos happened in Tramontina. One of them was the opening of a new factory to produce wood utensils, such as meat cutting board and later garden furniture, and the other was a big step in the search for the internationalization of the company, the inauguration of an office in the United States, the laço Corporation in famérica, which would later become Tramontina and ueci.

The American Strategy

The objective of opening the office in American soil was to insert the brand’s products in the largest consumer market in the world, because the international presence of Tramontina until that moment was timid and very focused on South America. The first great achievement of this strategy happened in 1989, when Tramontina managed to enter Walmart.

The Partnership with Walmart

The Supermarket network at that time was the third largest retailer in the United States with 1,200 stores. Tramontina started selling cookware, knives and other kitchen utensils. This partnership ended up becoming a great success for the internationalization of Tramontina. The Gaúcha company ended up hitching a ride with the strong expansion of Walmart that would become a global retailer.

Global Expansion

To have an idea, Tramontina became one of the three largest suppliers of the American giant where the more than 11 thousand Walmart stores were around the world, the Brazilian products were also there. In 1990, Tramontina managed to sell to another retail giant, Cosco.

Presence in Large Networks

The company had another 300 points in countries such as Australia, South Korea, Japan, Mexico, United Kingdom, Spain, among others. Being inside these large retail chains meant entry into large markets, which attracted more retail clients and consequently more people using Tramontina products in the world.

Succession and Continuity of the Family Business

In 1991, Ivo and Rui, who had been at the head of Tramontina for four decades, understood that it was time to choose a successor to take over the company. After a long phase of observation and testing, they ended up choosing Clóvis to take over the presidency of the company, with Rui’s son, Eduardo comoazum, as his vice.

A Complicated Transition

The transition phase ended up being a bit complicated. The old generation disagreed with the decisions about the direction of the company, but the new duo had enough skill to calm the spirits of their predecessors and of the entire company team. In the end, they ended up replicating the duo of the Parents.

The Dynamics of the New Leadership

Eduardo, who has information in engineering, had a more analytical and low profile. Clovis, the enthusiast, was a Born salesman. Both also ended up Complying with the change of command. Two roads were created with equal actions representing the two families: the series to representing the Tramontina and the well to representing the definition was that Tramontina would continue to be a family company a closed capital.

Focus on Marketing and Internationalization

Little changed in terms of structure and the highly weekly management that the company preached, but from that moment on the company accelerated even more in three great points: marketing, commercial presence and its internationalization. In 2000, Clóvis determined the creation of a marketing sector, which was somewhat innovative for the company.

The Influence of Local Culture

This is because the region of Carlos Barbosa, the city where the company originated, greatly influenced Tramontina. People in the region tend to be quite discreet and modest. Flaunting something or self-promoting was often and still is considered vexatious. Therefore, for the company, what mattered until then was only the quality of its products and not between quotes to brag about them.

The Trajectory in the Media

But claves had already been preparing for the change over the years. When he was still National sales manager, passionate about the theme, he started with a few initials of newspapers and magazines reaching TV. An interesting partnership that he closed was with Varig, the company considered highly sophisticated at the time carried the Tramontina cutlery on its planes.

Advertising on TV

But it was with the initials on TV Globo stations that, according to Clóvis, the company reached a huge projection. On Globo he advertised in the intervals of soap operas to reach the female audience and on Band in the intervals of sports thus reaching a male audience.

Slogans and Memes

Slogans such as Tramontina and Tramontina and Tramontina, the pleasure of making beautiful became known to Brazilians and of course, there is no way to forget the meme quick cut, knife is Tramontina. As a consequence of these actions we used 92 thousand represented a great growth for the Gaúcha company.

Challenges and Opportunities

Even with the National industry losing a lot of competitiveness compared to countries like China, Tramontina the Dra bold strategies to face the staggering of Chinese products. One of them was an increase in the quantity manufactured of some pieces considered as Carro Chefe to approach the scale and prices of China.

Strategies to Compete

This increased productivity, resulting in lower costs. Even so, in the lines that represented little the price currently the company could not compete and had to import some items. But what was hunt turned into opportunity and the company ended up being much more competitive.

Opportunities in the Pandemic

An example of this was in the covid pandemic in which many of its competitors that only imported articles ran out of stocks due she was demand. Tramontina, because it has production in Brazil, ended up having more products to deliver the clients in addition to not depending on imports. There was another great advantage due to the focus of the Consumer being in buying items for the house, which is basically the company’s portfolio.

Growth in Turnover

The result of this was a growth of 50% in its turnover in the period of the pandemic.

Clóvis Tramontina: Beyond the Entrepreneur

Clóvis is not just a great businessman, he is the man behind another great creation. Clóvis Tramontina, the man who transformed Tramontina into a world power, is the founder and President emeritus of the Carlos Barbosa futsal association ACBF, one of the largest futsal teams in the world.

The Passion for Futsal

The story tells that until 1976, the protagonism of the futsal dispute in the city of Carlos Barbosa studied between the teams River and real. After a defeat of his team, Clóvis launched the idea of setting up a team to play the state and right there it was decided to merge the two teams to create a new team, assinacia A CBF.

Sponsorship and Business Strategies in Sports

Cobras became president sponsor of CBF adopting its business strategies also in the futsal team after 20 years to win the first championship. The CBF today has three world championships, five Brazilian championships by the National League, in addition to Two Cups of Brazil and more 13 Rio Grande championships. One of the great dreams of the businessman is to see futsal in the Olympics.

Personal Challenges and Overcoming

But Clóvis’s life is not all joys. A complicated fact has been following 1980, he suffers from multiple sclerosis, a chronic disease that attacks the central nervous system having as effects the loss of balance, impairment of Vision, lack of coordination and more other symptoms. Cobre always faced the disease with good humor and never failed to fulfill his commitments because of it.

An Intense Routine

With a very busy routine, he traveled the world and all Brazil visiting clients and presenting his company even with its series of difficulty of locomotion.

The Legacy of Tramontina

The truth is that the story of Tramontina was made by great women and men. When Valentim told Elisa that one day his small ironworks would be the largest in Rio Grande do Sul, he did not imagine that the company’s products would be in nine out of 10 Brazilian places. The brand is known by 97% of Brazilians and has 70% of the participation of the National Market of the household utilities sector.

A Global Presence

Elisa, saying that her factory went beyond the tree, did not imagine that currently the company had a new industrial units, 7 in Rio Grande do Sul, one in Belém and another in Recife, counting with more than 12 thousand employees. Tramontina in recent years has invested in electronic commerce and opened physical stores that are spaces of experience serving as showroom of the entire product line that help to reinforce the love.

Stores and Distribution

Currently there are 22 stores called Stories, 10 of them are abroad in addition to two factory cans assist Factory. With the growing human theme of its products around the world was opening other different continents offices focusing on the sale and distribution of.

International Operations

The company has 20 operations abroad between commercial offices and distribution centers. In 2022, Tramontina‘s export revenue totaled 400 Million Dollars accounting for 25% of the group’s total turnover and half of these external sales are to the United States.

Success in Germany

The knives for meat are the main export products. The company recognized worldwide for the quality of its products Conquistando year after year territory in the most diverse countries. One of the countries that stands out is Germany. There, the barbecue line is a true success. To enter the world country Tramontina used the strategy of promoting the culture of Brazilian barbecue organizing tastings of picanha on the skewer.

The Future of Tramontina

Currently, the spit is one of the best-selling products in Germany and the Tramontina knives are among the best-selling in the country and the company has more than a thousand points of sale in Germany. The man behind all this growth Flávia Tramontina left the presidency of the group in 2021.

The Revenue Target

In that year the company reached the personal goal that levist to leave the caro: but of 10 billion reais of turnover. Eduardo was one more his faithful companion for so many years assumed the presidency having Clóvis’s son, Marcos Tramontina, as his vice-president so it remains a family company with a strong organizational culture.

Continuous Innovation

The latest news are that in 2022 Tramontina inaugurated a new factory, now of porcelain. The company in the same year had turnover of 10.6 billion reais and follows its annual growth producing more than 22,000 items in the most diverse lines that acts.

Impressive Numbers

Annually manufactures more than 500 million cutlery, 90 million knives, 70 million cookware and 50 million tools. Tramontina, a Centenary company, is certainly a company Made in Brazil that is worth having its rich history shared.