Nortenha wants to obtain the GOTS and GRS certifications

The Têxtil Nortenha has put in motion the process to obtain the GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) and GRS (Global Recycled Standard) certifications, which  – if aproved – would enable it to provide to groups such as H&M. Meanwhile, the company’s expansion and renovation project is under way and is directed towards sustainability, recycling and environmental preservation.

Nortenha’s permanent adjustment to the new market conditions, which allowed it to keep its head out of water and survive the successive crises that have lashed the sector since the beginning of the century, resulted in manpower and space reduction.

The company used to occupy an area of approximately 12,000 square meters, but now it only needs 2,000 square meters. The key was to concentrate its operations on a more efficient layout, and profit from the unoccupied areas.

The lab, where the knits are tested, was located on the first floor, but from now on will be near the manufacturing and commercial areas.

“We are concentrating in the same space all the company’s sectors, which will be separated by glass walls. Everyone is going to see everyone. Every week we receive clients that will walk right past the manufacturing areas, where the dressmakers work “, explains Paulo Branco, Empresa Têxtil Nortenha’s CEO.

The remodeling works, which should be finished before the end of the year, are budgeted at 150 thousand euros and follow a 100% green logic.

“What is being dismantled on one side is being assembled on the other. Everything, even the doors and hinges. Instead of spending more resources, we are recycling all the materials,” says the CEO.

Regarding the vacant spaces, Nortenha is already profiting from renting one of its pavilion (the ground floor is rented to a home textile and the first floor to a machinery and equipment factory) and is investing 100 thousand euros in the requalification and reconditioning of the factory’s annexes, an area of about 500 m2 that will be rented as offices, each of them with independent entrance, for other companies and services.