Damel produces high-end fashion clothing and technical and sport outfits for important global brands

“Damel is a company that reflects the image of its managing director, restless, dynamic and innovative. The company seeks to optimize solutions for market gaps in the segment of technical textiles and clothing, with an emphasis on complex technical answers that add to the state of the art of contemporary market solutions in those segments”, according to the president of COMPETE 2020, Rui Vinhas da Silva within the scope of the initiative COMPETE 2020: close to those that create value.

Describing Damel, the president of COMPETE 2020, Rui Vinhas da Silva, highlighted that “Damel is a company that reflects the image of its managing director, restless, dynamic and innovative. The company seeks to optimize solutions for market gaps in the segment of technical textiles and clothing, with an emphasis on complex technical answers that add to the state of the art of contemporary market solutions in those segments.” Rui Vinhas da Silva, adds that in his opinion “Damel therefore looks for ingenious solutions to concrete problems, answers that constitute obvious advantages to the current market solutions. This presupposes a strong market orientation and a particular attention to the world that surrounds the organization. Only in this way has Damel been able to conceive such innovative products as sea survival equipment for fishermen or ski suites that allow those who wear them to survive an avalanche in the Alps. Truly innovative organization anchored on strong engineering.”

A Brief History of Damel - Confecção de Vestuário Lda

Founded in the early eighties and with a family structure, Damel is a company of the textile sector, specializing in high value-added technical clothing, located in Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal.

With a wide experience in the national and international market, the company owns the Gore-Tex license, using the best raw materials, with a unique design, advanced technology and the knowledge of generations. In this way, it has created lasting relationships and partnerships with its customers by providing product quality, innovation, responsiveness and flexibility.

Damel complies with the strictest standards of quality by obtaining the certificate number EN-02/CEP. 1648 according to norm NP EN ISO 9002/94, by the certifier APCER.

• Mission

Their mission is mainly to offer products and services of excellence to meet the needs and requirements of its customers, employees and suppliers. They want to connect to the brand so that it is always part of their choices.

• Vision

Damel intends through desire, commitment and dedication to achieve excellence and reference in the textile industry, offering customers differentiation, quality, creativity and innovation. The company is excited about the future. Without forgetting the successes of the past, they look to explore new territories in a more innovative area.

• Values

The company, to stay faithful to its own values implements them meticulously. These values provide Damels´ employees with opportunities to reach their full potential. With the commitment to develop the best products and services on the market, all Damel does is driven by passion, because this is the only way to reach excellence. They seek to implement the best policies of economic, social and environmental sustainability.

• Innovation

Damel bets heavily on innovation, having obtained the certification of its EDI management system, in accordance with the standard NP 4457:2007, thereby increasing the efficiency and performance of the company with regard to research, development and innovation of high added value technical clothing.

• Goals

Through technological innovation they face the challenges of the future, creating innovative and effective technology, able to satisfy the needs of the market.

COMPETE 2020: close to those that create value

On the 18th of November 2015, the president of COMPETE 2020 Rui Vinhas da Silva, initiated a two day visit to companies of the clothing, confection and fashion sectors.

By nature it is an exporting sector which experienced in 2014 a growth in exports of 9,5% (data from ANIVEC). From 2009 to 2014, the sales to external markets of these sectors grew by 29%.

Within the textile sector exports of clothing and confection represented 60,2% of the total exported in 2014, and contributed to the trade balance with a surplus of 967 million euros.

This visit is integrated in an extended set of visits to the exporting sectors of the Portuguese economy. By identifying the set of critical factors for economic growth related to exportation, acting in a consistent and systematic way on this variable by adding value to tradable goods, committing to incorporate innovation, applied knowledge and marketing, listing what is necessary to do to remove the structural and behavioral barriers to direct external investment, will make it possible to create the conditions for sustained economic growth in Portugal via competitiveness and exports, all of which concretizes the great objective of the COMPETE 2020 programme.

The visits included part of a group of companies with differing market positions, which shows the wealth of these and the strong dynamic that the Portuguese companies have demonstrated in the last few years, namely Salsa (Irmãos Vila Nova, S.A.), Calvelex, Laranjinha (Hall&CA), Petratex, Fiorima, Damel, P&R Têxteis S.A. and Grupo Polopique.

According to Rui Vinhas da Silva, president of COMPETE 2020, the visits to some of the companies of the sector within the scope of the initiative “COMPETE 2020:close to those who create value”, showed that the textile sector, that went through severe problems with the opening of the European markets to China and the 2008 crisis, were able to reinvent themselves acquiring sustainable competitive advantages for the companies, anchored on tangible differentiation (sophisticated processes and products) creating in this way the brand-country and improving the competitiveness of the Portuguese economy.