Nextil: green dyes that make a difference

“Sustainability today is a must. Social as much as environmental. That’s why we spend a lot of time and energy working on developing Greendyes ®, our completely sustainable dyeing technique,” says Manuel Martos, CEO of Nextil Group.

Based in Madrid, but with production facilities in the US, Portugal, and Guatemala, Nextil Group is a big player in the textile industry, that offers a broad range of products within five different divisions (luxury, sports, intimate, swimwear and, medical) and services (textile production, garment manufacturing and sustainable dyeing). Recently, the company has decided to tackle its carbon footprint head-on.

“The textile industry is second only to petroleum in terms of pollution. The worst part is the dyeing process because it uses 100g chemicals per litre and it could take more than 24 hours to complete a dyeing cycle, using temperatures of up to 160 degrees. That’s a lot of energy and water…” Manuel explains.

And this is where Nextil Group’s new technology comes in. The company offers a new sustainable dye solution that uses no chemicals, and decreases incredibly the use of water and energy since everything happens at 25 degrees. “Now we are saving 80% on energy, 77% on water use, and adding literally no chemicals. And it can all be done in less than an hour,” he adds. “The savings in water usage alone could provide drinking water for 90m people. That’s the water savings alone.”

One of the key breakthroughs for Nextil Group, however, was at the level of machinery. Although initially this new Greendyes ® solution was designed to require its own, specific machinery, with time it became more interesting to use existing machinery with minor modifications. This allows the dye to be used much more broadly across the spectrum of partners Nextil Group works with.

This process of designing the machinery and proceeding with the production required an important investment, and for that, the company turned to Inveready, and benefited from an EU-guaranteed loan backed by the EIF under the Investment Plan for Europe. “It gave us the operational capital to get this project going, produce the machinery and buy the material we needed. Last year was all about starting up the project. This year we have planted the seed, and with all the ingredients now in place, next year will be about ramping it up,” explains Manuel.

Greendyes ®, which reduces carbon footprints by 80%, is not more expensive for users. But what’s perhaps most interesting is that it is developed using residuals mainly from the automobile industry, to which Nextil Group adds “our own secret material” as Manuel says, thus really minimising waste. With large retail, denim and sport brands already on board, the new sustainable dye is set to make a big difference in the textile industry.

Company: Nextil Group

Type of business: textile

EIF financing: InnovFin SMEG, EFSI

Financial intermediary: Inveready

For further information about EIF intermediaries in Spain, please refer to: http://www.eif.org/what_we_do/where/es