Lantal's success story in Portugal - Together with Portugal’s textile industry, Lantal supplies premium products that travel the world every day.

Lantal Textiles leads the design, development, and manufacture of high-performing, eco-conscious textiles and solutions for the aviation, railway, and bus transportation markets.

In 2016, the Swiss group acquired the Portugal-based company Gierlings Velpor, a major European player in velvet and synthetic fur. Today, the velvet textiles produced for the group’s ground transportation business are made in Portugal.

The group has also given the Portuguese subsidiary full responsibility for the ground transportation division, including commercial, design, supply chain, production, and other business support activities.

Established in Portugal: 2016

Industry: Textiles

Where: Santo Tirso (Porto region)

Country of Origin: Switzerland

Lantal's history goes back more than 140 years. From a linen mill for local cheesemakers in Switzerland, it has become one of the most important textile manufacturers serving the global aviation and ground transportation markets.

Today, the company offers all-in-one solutions and a premium portfolio of innovative products, including seat upholstery fabrics, wall coverings, carpets, fine leather and pleated curtains, most of which come from Santo Tirso in northern Portugal.

With its 3.0 million euro investment in Portugal, Lantal has strengthened its production capacity by investing in new equipment, technology, and qualified human resources in design, sales, and customer support, increasing competitiveness and opening new markets.

After an intensive reorganization process, the company exited the decoration and garment business to focus on transport fashion. The production site in Portugal now manufactures velvet, exports it worldwide, and employs nearly 100 people.

Urs Rickenbacker, Lantal’s CEO, highlights the quality of talent in Portugal and says the northern area of Porto “has many well-trained people in the textile industry”. He also praises how easy it was to access this talent, “much easier than in other countries, which helped us a lot to develop the company to the stage we are in right now”.

Looking ahead, the Swiss group wants to strengthen collaboration with the Portuguese textile industry and bring additional expertise to the country. “We are very happy with how it’s working; we have excellent conditions here and would like to expand our business in Portugal,” says Urs Rickenbacker.

We were looking for a place to invest, we visited several countries and finally came to the conclusion that Portugal has the best textile terrain because there is a great community when it comes to textile companies. We started collaborating with these companies and were very impressed with their quality, management and products.