T
TrimNW starts 2025 with new premises, a move to contain costs, explains Rui Lopes, the company’s director. ‘We’ve been renting premises since the beginning, and we wanted to move into our own. With the increase in rents and the prospect of growing sales, we decided to do so this year,’ he told T Jornal.
The new premises, about 20 kilometres from the original building, were bought in July last year and since then it has been adapted to the company’s needs, whilst maintaining production. ‘It’s going to be a long move; we’re going to try to do it by July, so we don’t stop production completely. The equipment is heavy, which means we must be careful during the move,’ says the CEO.
The idea with this investment is also to introduce photovoltaic panels, which will enable savings on electricity bills of between 30-35 per cent. ‘We’re mostly in the automotive sector, so it’s not easy to pass on costs to customers. The idea with these two investments is to control costs,’ says Rui Lopes, not forgetting the weight of fluctuations in the prices of raw materials and transport.
As far as raw materials are concerned, TrimNW is already working on a solution to reduce their imports: making raw materials from less noble recycled plastics. ‘The most common and simple polyester recyclate comes from bottles. What we’re developing together with CITEVE, PIEP and EcoIberia is to make a raw material from a less noble recyclate that has the same technical characteristics. We’re currently in the testing and validation phase,’ he enthusiastically explains.
Some of this was recently revealed at a trade fair in Stuttgart: ‘We’re having good results, the prospects are that we’ll be able to get a raw material at competitive prices, because at the moment recycled bottles are more expensive than virgin polyester, which makes it difficult to convince customers,’ he concludes.
This development is part of the PRR – Recovery and Resilience Plan, which is due to end in December 2025. It also fits into TrimNW’s annual investment plan. As a rule, the company invests 7 per cent of sales in innovation and this year will be no exception.
In summary, the director says he expects growth in results compared to 2023 – ‘I don’t have December´s figures yet, but we have prospects of 5-7 per cent growth. This has already been our average growth,’ he explains.
TrimNW is guaranteed to enter 2025 on the right foot. Rui Lopes told T Jornal that the company has a new client that will bring an increase of between 15-20% next year.
‘’This is a business in the medical and hygiene area, which ends up being an additional project to the clients we have in the automotive area, ´he begins, adding that the contact came about following the closure of the production line – ‘’the client produces the things we produce, but has a line that is going to stop. The idea is for us to supply them,’ he explains.
With this business and others, Rui Lopes admits that there will be a need to hire more staff: ‘At the moment we have 30 workers, but the prospects are to increase to 40. Ten more, which is a significant increase in the structure,’ he says.
The employees will also be providing support for orders in the automotive sector, which, despite the crisis in Germany, will not stop. ‘In our area, what happens is that when there are crises in the European market, our competitors end up readjusting and closing some smaller businesses. We ended up winning these deals, for example in September a competitor of ours told the market that it was going to stop production line and we had customers calling in looking for supply alternatives,’ he adds.