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1927
The year when a young entrepreneur named José Dias de Oliveira founded Riopele, installing two looms for fabric production in a water mill located on the left bank of the Pele River in Pousada de Saramagos, Vila Nova de Famalicão municipality.
1189 employees
The number of Riopele employees at the end of 2023. With a stabilized workforce of 1189 active workers, Riopele has been able to attract a new generation of talent. As a result, the average age of employees is 41 years, one of the lowest in the entire fashion sector in Portugal. It's worth noting that 22% of workers are under 30 years old. Similarly, the number of graduates currently represents over 12% of the total company workforce.
98 million euros
The turnover of Riopele at the end of 2023 across all business areas. Specialized in producing fabrics for fashion, Riopele vertically integrates the areas of R&D, Spinning, Dyeing, Twisting, Weaving, Finishing, Private Label, offering a vertical textile production service capable of keeping up with the current fast pace of the fashion industry.
438
The number of active clients of the company at the end of 2023. Riopele exports over 95% of its production to the most demanding international markets. Consolidating its presence in the most relevant European markets has been a priority, along with regular investments in more distant geographies such as the USA and Asia.
9,6 million meters
Vertically integrating the entire production cycle, from raw materials to fabric and finished garments, Riopele has modern facilities equipped with state-of-the-art machines ensuring greater operational efficiency and sustainability, highly digitized and flexible production, and management control based on optimized KPIs. In 2023, Riopele produced over 9,6 million meters of fabric.
19 million euros
19 million euros is the investment planned by Riopele until the end of 2025. As part of the GIATEX project, 1 million euros will be invested in creating tools and decision support systems for intelligent water management and reducing water consumption, making it circular. Additionally, 15 million euros will be invested in the Lusitanos project, seeking sustainable textile solutions from natural and recycled fibers, as well as energy and resource management solutions for the sector. Finally, aiming to boost the digitization of the textile and clothing sector in various domains, 3 million euros will be invested under the TEXP@CT project.
