WorldCity Business Magazine

Companies Cater to Brides, Mothers-to-Be and Babies

by WC

The types of Spanish businesses that have opened up here are as diverse as they are numerous.

And one of the most recent of the inquiries that the Spanish Trade Commission in Miami has taken in recent months was, ironically, from a proponent of natural water births.

Raul Mas Julian runs a company called Waves of Love – the Web site address is www.watertherapy.org.es and the commissions staff is scrambling to deliver what he needs.

“Raul does water therapy with babies and pregnant women,” says Belen Cristino, the Spanish Trade Commissioner in Coral Gables. “He’s trying to come to the United States and we are helping with everything from establishing the necessary contacts to finding appropriate premises.”

Another recent arrival is Bodaclick.com a full-service wedding company that occupies 1,000 square feet of office space on Coral Way in Miami and which plans to invest $700,000 in Miami-Dade County by the end of 2008. It employs 14 people.

The company aims to supply everything from receptions to tuxedos to honeymoons when users visit bodaclickusa.com (boda means wedding in Spanish). Bodaclick is the largest Web-based wedding organizer in Spain and said “I do” to Miami-Dade County in October 2005.

A recent recruit to the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, the company plans to become South Florida’s largest online wedding planner, says Lorraine Reigosa the chambers director of communications and external affairs.

Bodaclick CEO Iigo (he also goes by the name Ignacio) Vega predicts the company will make $1 million this year but hopes to build up business to the levels of the companys Madrid-based parent which last year brought in $15 million.

The concept is akin to an online wedding mall in which vendors pay to advertise. Visitors to the site register and navigate without charge.

“It’s a free service to the user,” says Vega. “We rent space to any vendor who wants to get to our typical user. Then we quantify how many sales, not clicks, our Web site has effected.”

Miami is a base from which the company is tackling the Latin America and domestic Hispanic markets.

Last month, Bodaclick opened in Puerto Rico and it aims to push into Orlando, Houston and New York this year. Next year, the plan is to tackle the Brazilian and Mexican markets.

Though the company’s premise is to cater to Spanish speakers, Vega says that non-Hispanics are finding value in its services.

“We started targeting Hispanics, but what weve found is that our added value is how we tap into the local market and provide the best vendors,” he says. “We gather all of the relevant service providers. By developing local content, we are helping people, regardless of origin, find what they need for their weddings.”

Though the big, fat, Spanish wedding is a reality, Vega says that non-Hispanics are paying as much per head.

“There’s no big difference in the U.S. market,” he says. “Hispanics like grander affairs and they may plan bigger weddings but income levels are the same and expectations pretty similar.”

The company was referred to the Beacon Council by the Madrid office of Enterprise Florida.