President CDL 2005-2008 President CDL 2014

Artur Almeida began his entrepreneurial trajectory at the age of twenty, after his father's death, selling clothing in a small house at the central fair to help the family. At that time, the newly graduated young man in law by the UEPB, had to give up his career as a lawyer to, alongside his mother and siblings, develop skills for trade.

In 1996, he founded Rutra, now consolidated network of stores specializing in men's clothing, headquartered in Campina Grande and branches in the best commercial addresses of the states of Paraíba, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte, Maranhão and Alagoas.

Interest in the shopkeeper movement

The story of Artur in the shopkeeper movement began in the year 1998, when he became an effective partner of the Chamber of shopkeepers of Campina Grande (CDL-CG), attending the invitation of the friend Radival Matias, during the management of then President Zouraide Silveira. In a short time, the young entrepreneur fell in love with the work that the entity developed in defense of the Campinense trade.

Years later, in 2005, when he first assumed the position of President, he regulated the accumulated debts over the years and undertook a major structural reform in the building that houses the headquarters of the entity. But his mandate stood out even by giving a new face to the CDL, with the reformulation of Liquida Campina and the realization of actions geared towards the development of local retail. "At that time the CDL lived a moment of great difficulty. Our main product, SPC, was declining and the number of associated companies was extremely small. We performed an intense work to improve our image before our target audiences and at the end of the mandate we had managed to double the number of associates, "said Artur Almeida.

Another prominent point of the first management of Artur in front of the CDL had a social character. In April 2008, he, alongside the body of executive directors, proposed the creation of a nucleus within the entity, focused on the training of young people to enter the labor market, thus the CDL Foundation was born. "The CDL Foundation has emerged with the purpose of promoting the training of the workforce and assisting needy young people in Campina Grande and neighboring towns.  From the outset, the CDL's proposal to implement the Foundation is to seek the elimination of barriers to equal opportunities in access to standards worthy of quality of life for all. " 

The success of good performance made him be reled to the position in the year 2009 when he can continue the good work he was developing in defense of the business class. The profile of good administrator and defender of the shopkeeper movement led him to the presidency of the Federation of CDL ´ S of Paraíba, a function he played until the month of March 2015. 

New management with new challenges _ after three years ahead of the FCDL, Artur returned to preside at CDL Campina Grande in December 2014, a position in which he should remain in office until the end of 2017. He explains that the new management brought even greater challenges than those faced when he first took over the entity. Its goal is to reach the end of the mandate with the brand of 1000 associated companies and for this, as the other time, has invested high in improving the image of the entity. "We launch products such as the credit card conciliator, the CDL qualifies, we strengthen the Liquida Campina and invest in the commercial team, besides the role that TV CDL develops to present the image of the entity within Campina Grande and outside it," he says.

The biggest challenge of Artur's management is to materialize an important project for the economic development of Campina Grande. The open-air mall. The idea is to take to the center of the city the structure found in conventional shopping malls, with security and infrastructure capable of attracting consumers. "All the research and strategic planning material is already ready. There are only a few details so that we can finally see the dream of the open-air mall get effectively ready, "celebrates.

The shopkeeper is proud of the opportunity to preside over the largest CDL in Paraiba exactly in the year in which the entity completes 50 years of existence. "There are 50 years of history marked by the sequence of successful management. This made us guarantee to be the shopkeeper entity with the highest representativeness of the state, "he concluded.

Entrepreneur is a member of the board of the Cndl _ since March 2015 the entrepreneur José Artur Melo de Almeida occupies a chair of director of the National Confederation of Shopkeepers (Cndl). The most organized and representative entity of the Brazilian retail, today aggregates more than 5000 CDL ´ s associated in Brazil and controls the Credit Protection Service (SPC).  Artur was invited and appointed to seat a vacancy in the Executive Board of Cndl, which is currently chaired by the wholesaler of the supermarket industry, Honório Pinheiro.