Catalan socks and underwear brand Punto Blanco starts to sell in Russia and the UK
Punto Blanco has its own network to distribute and sell in 37 countries. The Catalan socks and underwear manufacturer has 16 shops, 15 of them in Spain and another in Portugal. Exports might represent 15% of the companies turnover.
Igualada (ACN).- Catalan socks and underwear brand Punto Blanco, based in Igualada, a town in central Catalonia, has signed agreements with retailers to start selling in Russian and British markets. With these agreements, Punto Blanco has its own network to distribute and sell in 37 countries. Company CEO, Josep Ignasi Reixach, explained that now exports represent “between 10 and 15% of turnover”, but he thinks that this rate will increase. Punto Blanco calculates that the “Spanish economy will stop for three or four years, and for this reason, we need to sell around the world”. Last year, Punto Blanco made €22.4 milion. Reixach said that “unfortunately, the national market is suffering enormously, and that’s why we are enhancing exports” and added that they are preparing agreements with other countries but he did not want to specify which.
16 shops
Punto Blanco has 16 shops, 15 of them in Spain and another in Portugal. In other countries, the products are sold through multibrands’ shops. However, Reixach expects that in the coming years, Punto Blanco will open more stores, because the real-estate market is at an “interesting” moment and “there are great opportunities and locations”.
On the Internet, the Catalan company expects a very strong growth, despite the fact that sales need to improve.
A Catalan company
Punto Blanco produces 90% of its socks in Igualada, where there are 300 workers. Other products -underwear, swimsuits and pyjamas- are produced in different countries in the world, like Portugal, Morocco or Tunisia- as Reixach explained.
“We don’t want to decrease the quality level of our products”, added Reixach because “people like buying low cost products, but they should ask themselves how there are made, what dyes are being used...” He explained that “people must know that buying low cost products may cause the disappearance of local industry. Punto Blanco’s CEO said that “buying cheap products turns out to be, at the end, very expensive”.
New materials to take care of skin diseases
Punto Blanco is a part of a consortium coordinated by Fitxex, a technologic centre that is studying the possibility of creating new textiles materials to prevent skin diseases. The project is called “Sanitex”, and its main goal is to produce tissues that could cure psoriatic or atopic dermatitis, for example.