Inside a Luxury Clothing Factory in Portugal

Summary

Texmin is a Portuguese garment factory led by Francisco, whose family helped establish the business in the 1960s. Its strategy is to compete through flexibility, craftsmanship, and complex product development, rather than standard, easily replicated garments. Francisco says he is motivated by challenging projects—such as unusual construction, custom washes, embellishments, or combining different fabric types—and sees this as a way to differentiate the factory and keep work in Portugal.

The factory works with clients from the collection-planning stage. It helps develop garments, stores fabric for brands, and organizes pattern makers around client relationships so they can understand each brand’s preferred fit. Production then proceeds through pattern-making, fabric cutting, optional printing or embroidery, sewing, and final inspection.

A key operational advantage is doing decoration before garment assembly. Printing or embroidering flat panels makes it easier to achieve consistent placement and quality, especially for large prints or designs that wrap around sleeves. The factory also demonstrates a process for making self-fabric collars, where the collar uses the same fabric as the garment body rather than a separate rib fabric.

The factory emphasizes quality control throughout production, including replacing defective cut pieces and conducting a final inspection before garments are prepared for delivery. Some employees are trained to complete multiple garment-making operations, allowing a worker to assemble a full garment at one station rather than passing it through many specialized stations. Francisco links retaining skilled employees to providing very good salaries.

Francisco sees rising labor costs as a major long-term challenge. He is focused less on 2024–2026 and more on 2028–2030, while aiming to keep prices competitive and retain production in Portugal. He says factories that focus only on price and lack product variety or flexibility are more likely to struggle.

Business Playbooks and Operating Practices

• Differentiate through complex work: Pursue products other factories may avoid, such as unusual construction, mixed materials, distinctive embellishments, and custom garment treatments.
• Develop products collaboratively: Start with the client’s collection needs, then align fabric, fit, and construction before production.
• Build client-specific pattern knowledge: Keep pattern makers familiar with individual clients’ fit preferences to reduce repeated development work.
• Use panel-level decoration: Print or embroider fabric panels before sewing garments together to improve placement, consistency, and quality.
• Cross-train for flexibility: Train employees across multiple operations so the factory can handle varied products and, in some cases, assemble a whole garment at one station.
• Invest in retention: Francisco identifies strong employee compensation as essential to keeping skilled workers.
• Maintain quality controls: Inspect fabric and cut pieces, replace defective panels, and perform a final garment inspection before packing or hanging for delivery.

Metrics, Targets, and Timelines

• Factory footprint: The business grew from about 5,000 m² to 20,000 m², and later returned to about 5,000 m².
• Company history: Founded in the 1960s.
• Long-term planning horizon: Francisco highlights 2028 and 2030 as the years he is most concerned about, citing expected salary increases and the resulting pressure to keep prices competitive.
• No revenue, margin, production-volume, or customer-acquisition figures are provided.

Examples

• Large sleeve prints: Printing flat hoodie-sleeve panels before assembly avoids the difficulty of producing an even print on a finished tubular sleeve.
• Self-fabric collar: A collar made from the same fabric as the body can offer an alternative to a separate rib fabric.
• Product differentiation: Francisco gives examples including distinctive washes, embellishments, unusual garment treatments, and mixing jersey with woven fabric.

Presenters and sources: Will Lasry and Francisco (the factory representative; the subtitles also identify him as José Francisco), of Texmin.