Renews invests € 40 million in production line and says that black toilet paper was successful because the category was reinvented.

The new machine which Renews will install at the factory in Torres Novas, at a cost of € 40 million, will allow increase in 50% the production of tissue paper. In parallel, the company led by Paulo Pereira da Silva is investing in a factory in France, to provide the main international markets of Renova, which are Spain (26%), France and Belgium (17%). Half the business continues to be made in Portugal. In 2014, the company grossed €146 million and is on pace for growth.
Why this investment of € 40 million in a production line?
Is connected to our activity in France. There is also investment in logistics because it takes a whole sheds industrial adaptation to a new line of tissue paper.
All products are made with the same paper, on the same machine?
They're not exactly alike, have different characteristics. For example, the scarves are more resistance to humid conditions, which have no toilet paper. But they are all similar and so it can be done on the same machine. The toilet paper is different from paper to scarves, of course.
The new machine is to cope with an increase in production or is to make new products?
Is a pioneer in terms of innovation, does not exist any more in Europe, and will allow us to make products with a very high quality. Is a new technology, but I can't tell you anything else.
The same or new products?
The same, in the sense that they're toilet paper, handkerchiefs and napkins, but with different characteristics. But I'm not going to say much more.
Are products that stand for which markets?
We have made a very big effort of internationalization and this implies differentiation and innovation. There are attributes such as color and packing and there are others that have to do with the very substance of the paper, the way it is manufactured. The intention is to have an ever smoother, softer, more absorbent, with more production, at the lowest cost. This will help us in the process of internationalization.
Why is that international markets are more demanding in terms of quality than the Portuguese market?
I don't see anything like that. In Portugal, the Renova is a historic brand very well known, but to start in Canada, in Switzerland or in Germany, where there are known, it is much more difficult to start with products that are equal in the world. If you want to grow up I have to do this with innovation at all levels and to do that I have to be very technologically advanced. I don't see different markets, see the networked world.
At this point, the Renova is in how many countries?
I'd say more than 60, but we also have internet sales.
Where has agents, importers, a sales team?
Is very variable. In Portugal, Luxembourg, France, Spain and Belgium we are with our teams, are the most important markets. It is in this context that we decided to bet in a factory in France, in order to respond better to this area. Are countries where we food distribution. Then we're in over 50 countries in which we are in what we call selective distribution, home supplies, bathroom design and decoration, but these are very small markets compared to Europe I was telling you about.
What are the differences between the products we have on food distribution and the selective distribution?
We have a lot of products and some may overlap, we can have a hypermarket, for example, the tube with the three rolls of toilet paper black, but most of the products are different. We have a line of products with color, Red Label, in which the tube is red, more adapted to the food distribution and a massive market, while our more sophisticated is the color Black Label, for selective distribution. Red Label products are all double sided, color on one side and white on the other, to overcome the barrier of the people that have resistance to color, that was something you noticed with older people.