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Rui Gordalina takes pride in seeing Oldtrading not only as a manufacturer, but also as a laboratory-company, where innovating has become almost as important as producing or selling. “When we speak of innovation, it’s not enough to say we are available to innovate. Of course everyone’s available, but you need to make it happen”, explains the founder and director of the Famalicão-based company, whose speciality is Seamless technology.
When it was created, in 2009, Oldtrading was only a trading unit, and most of the business was made by reselling basic pieces in volume for big retailers, like the Auchan group, which still today integrates its client portfolio.
Quickly, Oldtrading realized that, in order to grow, it needed autonomy and its own productive capacity. Therefore, in 2011, it opens up to the industry, buying their first looms and raising their first manufacturing unit from scratch, designed to work with seamless technology.
“Who works with basic products makes very low margins, and suffers an enormous pressure that strains, over time. We had to take the leap”, recalls the entrepreneur.
Oldtrading turned to more technical products, then. “Innovating is transforming money into knowledge, and that is only possible with a qualified team”, explains Rui Gordalina. The biggest proof of this change is the Department of Product Engineering and Research, a section exclusively dedicated to developing new products.
This strategy has opened the doors for new markets, such as sportswear or prenatal. Compression bands that reduce muscle fatigue or slimming items with anti-cellulitis properties are just some of the technologies created by the company, a bet that reduced the weight of the most basic pieces and deepen their presence in external markets, which today represent 95% of the annual turnover.