António Moreira Gonçalves
When the Mundifios group created Inovafil, in late 2014, all signs pointed to a project in counter-cycle. The spinning market seemed to be switching Portugal for the East. However, the focus was on a different market: differentiated threads, custom-made, which brands are demanding more, faster and with added flexibility.
“In the beginning we had trouble explaining, even to the people we hired experienced in spinning mills, that the project had to be different in order to be sustainable”, recalls Rui Martins, textile engineer by training and director at Inovafil.
With the rise of athleisure, as well as the more technical sides of the industry, the search for threads with specific characteristics grew. Brands experimented with new and different materials, which require smaller volumes as well as a quick response and proactive suppliers.
Five years on, the company already registers a business volume of approximately 21 million euro, and, despite some instability in the market, the strategy is still fruitful.
Even with a catalogue that includes more than four thousand references, the mill still releases more than a thousand new threads and blends every year, which make their way to all ranks of the textile sector.
Thermoregulating, humidity managing threads or zinc threads are a few examples. In terms of sustainability they are not limited to organic or recycled fibres, but invested on raw material with less environmental impact such as nettle thread, with which Inovafil took away an iTechStyle Award in 2018.
Despite the awards, the director still looks into the horizon with his feet firmly on the ground: “We know that we will lose all these fibres once they get visibility because they might be replicated by countries where production costs are lower. We are ahead, but we must drive with an eye on the rearview mirror and never stop innovating”.