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For Acatel, 2019 took off to a rocky start, but the end was quite positive. The textile finishing company reached a sales volume of close to 12 million euro, boosting investment in new equipment and on a Research & Development department.
“The year began roughly, but on the second trimester we registered a huge growth. We grew over 10%, it was a good year”, reminisces Rui Cepa, sales manager at Acatel, the company that is part of the Impetus group.
A positive outcome, aided by external markets, which have been on the rise and now represent a third of the overall sales. “Our exporting business is centred in Europe, mostly in France, the UK and Spain, though we’re also taking our first steps in the US and Scandinavian countries”, states the sales manager.
2019 also goes down as the year of purchasing new equipment. “The company’s productive capacity was depleted”, explains Rui Cepa. Acatel has now invested 800 thousand euro on new machinery as to provide a better response to orders, including an eight-unit stenter and on a relax dryer.
On par with the new equipment, Acatel has decided to give autonomy to their R&D department, hiring a textile engineering researcher from Universidade do Minho, which will now begin developing new products.
Founded in 1985, the company also seeks to widen their service catalogue, which currently includes dyeing, digital and traditional printing, flocking and other textile finishings.