Silver lining hope for Dielmar

The future of troubled Portuguese textile company Dielmar which makes pieces for top luxury fashion brands such as Cerruti, Marzotto, Ermenegildo Zegna and Loro Piana may not be so bleak as anticipated.

The future of the company is likely to fall into the hands of its investors and there are said to already be parties interested in buying the company based at Alcains near Castelo Branco which has declared insolvency.
But since a judge at the Castelo Branco Commercial Court declared the company’s bankruptcy a week ago, three potential buyers have appeared according to the Chapter 8 manager João Francisco Baptista de Maurício.
“The only thing that I can confirm is that I have received three e-mails from three people that have been forwarded by Castelo Branco Municipal Council; one from a law firm and the other two from potential investors that have shown an interest in presenting a proposal, finding out about the company and asking for more information about it,” said the insolvency manager.
The mayor of the Castelo Branco Municipal Council, José Alves confirmed to Jornal de Notícias on Friday “there are interested parties already, but so far only of an informal nature since they want to get more information about the company” adding “naturally there will be more interested parties over the coming weeks.”
Dielmar, which has 300 employees, filed for insolvency after 56 years in business which its board blamed on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a statement, the board states “after having overcome several crises over 56 years the company succumbed to the pandemic as a result of a set of situations that were lethal” for the business.
“This crisis globally attacked what best supported its activity: social interaction, events and weddings, with the elegance, glamour of bespoke tailoring and customisation in which we specialise, and professional office work, which were the fundamental basis of Dielmar’s business,” the statement reads.
And continues: “The past 16 months have been long and hard” and that management had made “an immense and solitary effort” to try to ensure the firm’s survival and to maintain the current 300 or so jobs.
“Therefore, we thank our workers, who have always stood by the company, fighting with us every day for its survival with immense commitment and dedication,” the board states.
It stresses that the business created by the company’s founders 56 years ago had “created thousands of jobs, trained thousands of people, generated immense wealth for the region and the country and carried Portugal’s name around the world”.
“We honour the history of Dielmar and the memory of its founders, because Dielmar has paid the salaries of its workers punctually and maintained, for more than five decades, the prosperity and security of many families in Alcains and the surrounding area,” it concludes.