The name Gramkow has Russian roots (Gamkov), but following the Revolution, the families moved to Europe. At the end of the 19th century, one of them departed for Brazil from Germany. They relocated to the South and first worked as farmers, but Mr. Gerhard Gramkow decided to buck family tradition and enter the local textile industry as a weaver in order to better the family's dire circumstances. Together with his grandson and current CEO, Cesar Augusto, one of his sons, Ivo, who is an economist and an executive graduate of the Institut Européen d'Administration d'Affaires (INSEAD), launched Gramkow.