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Sheets with banana or pineapple fiber and a tablecloth made with hemp fiber are some innovations that J. Pereira Fernandes brought to Heimtextil, showing that it is in line with sustainability.
“We bet on natural things, despite the production costs being between 10% and 15% higher. We have a lot of recycled materials, some 100% recycled”, says Amadeu Fernandes, responsible for this home textile from Pevidém, which celebrates its 90th anniversary.
After a good 2021, with a turnover of 33 million euros, 2022 was exceptional for J. Pereira Fernandes, which closed the year with sales of 46 million euros. For 2023, expectations are for a decline of around 10% to 12%. “The raw material has dropped a bit, wages and chemical products have risen a lot, and customers are expecting a significant drop in prices that is not within our reach”, explains Amadeu.
North America is the company’s principal market, with about 55% of its sales abroad. “The perspectives we have for this year are for a slight decline in the United States that we hope will be offset by growth in Canada and Mexico. Europe is an open question. But France is not bad”, analyzes Amadeu Fernandes.
Flannels are one of J. Pereira Fernandes’ strongest products, which employs 230 workers and exports 93% of its production of bed linen (80% of the total) and table linen (the remaining 20%).