The Vitória Stone Fair, the largest natural stone fair in the Americas, opened for its 21st year on January 30, 2024, in Vitória, Brazil, with two announcements: the show will rebrand as Marmomac Brazil in 2025 and move to São Paulo, the country's financial center, for the next three years.

Vitória Stone Fair is produced by Milanez & Milaneze, a Brazilian event management company that is part of the Veronafiere Group, a producer of events based in Verona, Italy. Veronafiere organizes Marmomac, the annual Italian stone event, which has been taking place for more 50 years in Verona and is scheduled for September 24 to 27, 2024.

The goal of the strategy shift is to reach new markets and audiences, architects and designers, and grow the stone sector internationally, according to show organizers. 

"We understand we need to get closer to the final customer, the people who create the demand," said Flavia Milanez, CEO of Milanez & Milanez.

The Brazilian stone export market is valued at $1.2 billion.

“The stone industry in Brazil has done a very, very good job connecting with other businesses, importers, distributors and fabricators around the world, however, we didn't do a good job connecting to specifiers, architects and designers -- specifiers of all kinds,” said Fabio Cruz, vice president of Centrorochas, a national organization of stone exporters. “So, for the last four years the industry has been trying different actions and different projects to bring more people to connect the companies to the designers and architects because that's the only way we can at one point start changing the demand to natural stone.”

An anticipated 15,000 attendees from 50 countries will attend this year’s Vitória Stone Fair to see approximately 250 exhibiting companies that mine and process natural stone or sell equipment, machines and technologies to the stone industry, Milanez said. Many attendees also travel through the state of Espirito Santo where the show is held to see mining and production of natural stone. 

"It's a bit risky to move this huge fair to São Paulo because almost 90% of the production comes from here, from our state," said João Paulo, marketing assistant at Vitória Stone Group, a top five distributor of natural stone in Brazil and exhibitor at Vitória Stone Fair. "São Paulo is the center of the business world in Brazil, even though it all comes from here, so we don't have a statement until it happens."

Marmomac Brazil will take place February 18 to 20, 2025, and will be more conceptual and less transactional to attract and connect more designers, said Tales Machado, president of Centrorochas.