WEBINAR “THE TEXTILE AND CLOTHING INDUSTRY’S NEW NORMAL” ANALYSED THE NEW TRENDS SET BY THE PANDEMIC

2021-04-29

The major trends in business enforced by the pandemic were analysed in yet another “The textile and clothing industry’s new normal” webinar, promoted by ATP. The event brought together textile entrepreneurs and specialists from other areas of activity to analyse the future challenges for the textile and clothing industry.

The goal was to bring together businessmen from the textile sector and specialists from other areas so that, together, they could reflect on the changes enforced by the pandemic in the business world, especially in the textile sector. Paulo Melo, on behalf of Somelos, and Alda Duarte, from TMG Automotive, thus joined José Caldeira, from INESC-TEC, and Clara Correia, specialist in human resources management, in a debate hosted by the journalist Mariana D'Orey, from T Jornal. The event ended with a speech by Mário Jorge Machado, ATP’s president.

Remote operations and activities, connection to the consumer, enhancement of proximity supply chains, and promotion of employee skills are the four macroeconomic trends that result from the changes set by the pandemic, which deserved detailed analysis by the webinar guest panel.

“The pandemic forced us to accelerate processes at an unprecedented rate. We focused a lot on a transparent and fast communication that, being online, proved to be even more urgent. And this communication happened from inside out, for our customers, but also internally, as if each employee was also a customer, an internal customer in this case. We developed a 3D simulation tool for this”, stated Alda Duarte, from TMG Automotive, when asked about the changes implemented in the current context.

An “acceleration” that was also felt by Paulo Melo, representing Somelos, a company that prioritized “people's safety, health and well-being, and only afterwards the company’s continuity and the connection to customers”. This meant psychological counselling for employees, made available since the beginning of the pandemic. “People are Somelos’ strength. They allowed us, in this context, to become flexible and agile, and to continue working, benefiting from the fact that other countries have stopped producing”, he adds.

Promoting the skills of each company, as well as the collective efficiency, were, according to José Caldeira, from INESC-TEC, one of the assets of the Portuguese textile sector in the current conjecture because those skills “ensure a sharing of costs, risks and also results, thus strengthening the bet on innovation”. Clara Correia, a specialist in human resources, reinforced the need for a strong leadership, and an honest business communication that enhances the individual and collective skills of the employees.

Innovation, digitization and sustainability were other topics discussed by the speakers, which unanimously agree that the changes imposed by the pandemic created an “essential relationship between digitization and sustainability”, which, they believe, puts the Portuguese textile sector in a privileged spot worldwide.

The webinar is part of the Sustainable Fashion From Portugal: Fashion Industry's New Chic initiative, a project that will take place over the course of two years, and will have an estimated investment of around 740 thousand euros, having been co-financed by the European Structural and Investment Funds (FEEI) , included in the POCI (Operational Program for Competitiveness and Internationalization), in Portugal 2020 and COMPETE 2020.