Antonino Pinto and Tadeu Pinto, the men of charisma who created Trimalhas. When they founded the company, they knew what they wanted to achieve: They wanted to be a benchmark in the textile sector with good management practices and a distinctive product.
Almost 21 years on, TRIMALHAS is not just a knit producer. It is a company that strives to be one of the most successful, fair and fraternal. For Trimalhas, people are everything.
“We have a dream team to achieve all our goals”
Carlos Neves, CFO Trimalhas
Carlos Neves embraced the Trimalhas project at the beginning of 2003, when he was still studying accounting at the Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto. His passion is numbers, results and good management practices. The vision for the TRIMALHAS project is endless. But people are his great passion and his focus, both inside and outside Trimalhas.
Carolina Pinto and Joana Forte, an unbeatable duo who, as well as being involved in product creation and development, travel the world to present the Trimalhas collection across borders.
This quintet is designing an internationalization project where innovation, marketing and a differentiated product are the stars of Trimalhas. Management and vision, these two values, are integrated into all the pillars that Trimalhas defends for future generations.
An exclusive interview that reflects the culmination of the collective work of recent years.
What has been the most recent investment in recent years?
We adapted our facilities in 2016, with an increase in installed production in buildings and machinery, laboratories and social spaces.
We also made a major investment in solar panels. The entire roof of the company is covered in solar panels.
How is the year going for Trimalhas compared to 2022/2023 and the pre-pandemic period?
Trimalhas has gradually grown in terms of the demanding service it provides. This service allows us to be present in several brands in different ranges. The year has been very positive, intense, stressful, with many internal changes, but very positive. We’re halfway through a journey of change and we’re very proud of the results we’ve been achieving.
In recent years there has been a constant restructuring of the company in order to improve processes. What prompted this change?
The restructuring has materialized more in service than in sales increases. Making the product, but providing a complement far beyond that. Having a partnership and permanent customer support. Whether it’s helping to inspire their collections, delivering on a date that meets their wishes and, in an area so prone to errors, always supporting the solution and the achievement of our client’s objectives. We have an entire sales team that supports the client in all their needs. Everyone is focused on delivering the product that our clients envision. Total focus on the product and customer satisfaction.
What investments do you have planned for the coming years?
Major investments in IT, robotics and internationalization.
Robotics in the sense of taking away from the operators the functions with the greatest load and physical wear and tear. In a textile weaving mill, the weight of the rollers makes the operators very weak. We intend to invest in robotics in these specific areas.
Internationalization, in order to get closer to brands and make ourselves known to the textile world. We’re a weaving company, we don’t sell a final product, but we have to be an inspiration to everyone through the products we create in-house.
What are the main challenges at the moment?
Undoubtedly the demands of our customers in terms of time, price and quality.
Added to this is the service they demand that we always have available and efficiently. This has been our focus. The response and the service we provide must be more assertive and excellent.
What is the company’s production capacity at the moment?
Approximately 2,250 tons per year.
TRIMALHAS has invested in training people in two different areas: skills and mental health. What is the aim of this investment and training?
For the last two years, Trimalhas has had intense training projects for its employees. Whether it’s more technical subjects or more emotional support. In recent times, we have hired a company to give us direct support in the areas of Work Stress Management, Pain, Psychology, Affective Disorders and subjects related to these issues, both in weekly individual and group sessions.
Our aim is to maintain good mental health for all our employees. In recent years, we’ve made a major internal overhaul and investment in employees who are more closely linked to the service.
How many employees does the company have at the moment?
We have 70 employees, and we don’t expect this number to change much. We have the team we would like to have in order to achieve all our dreams.
