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Respect. (from the lat. respectu) n. 1. respect; 2. consideration; high regard; 3. deference; compliance; veneration; 4. honour; worship; 5. relation; refererence...
We believe that everyone should be respected for their work, for their attitudes, opinions and options.
Rigor. (from the lat. rigore) n. 1. harshness; strength; 2.fig., severity; punctuality; accuracy.
There is no "more or less levelled", "more or less upright”, "more or less clean" or "more or less safe", but rather “levelled”, "upright”, "clean” and “safe". The rigour is reflected in our procedures, in time and in the rules to follow. In the light of moral and principles, being severe means being rigorous.
Passion. (from the lat. passione) n. 1. intense and usually violent feeling (affection, joy, hate, etc.) which hinders the exercise of impartial logic; 2. derived from a feeling; 3. great predilection; 4. partiality; 5. great grief; immense suffering...
Under the sign of passion – a text of the Portuguese poet Regina Guimarães – is our icon. Passion is to reveal great enthusiasm for something, favourable encouragement or opposite to something.
It is the sensibility transmitted by an architect or engineer through work.
Passion is the dedication to a project. Passion is a state of warm soul.
Loyalty. (from the lat. legalitate) n. the quality of being loyal; fidelity; sincerity.
Respect for the principles and rules that guide the honour and probity. Faithfulness to commitments and agreements undertaken, staunch character.
To remain loyal to the business partners because we depend on them and they depend on us.
Being trustworthy for being loyal.
Solidarity. (from the lat. solidare) n. 1. the quality of being solidary; 2. reciprocal responsibility among the members of a group, namely social, professional, etc.; 3. sense of sharing another’s suffering.
Being solidary is being a friend, offering our hand with genuine generosity and bringing joy and human warmth to those who, somehow, are marginalized. Being solidary is being more human. A solidary company is recognized as a fair and non-selfish company. A solidary company is a preferred choice in business. It is a more competitive company. Volunteering is a vehicle to solidarity. It is modern, fair, cultured, friend, it is a noble gesture of moral elevation.
Courage. (from the lat. coraticum) n. 1. bravery facing danger; intrepidity; to have audacity; 2. moral force before a suffering or setback; 3. [fig.] to input energy when performing a difficult task; perseverance...
Courage is essential in our life. Courage to face less pleasant situations when complex issues come up, not expecting random resolutions.
It is a value that we must highlight as opposed to the fearful, cowardly and laziness.
The courage to react to criticism not with an attitude of demotivation or sadness, but rather to search for the means and the action to overcome its own reason. This kind of courage, which is also an intellectual courage, is highly recommended.
Ambition. (from the lat. ambitione) n. 1. vehement desire of wealth, honours or glories; 2. expectation about the future; aspiration; 3. lust; greed…
Vehement desire to achieve a particular goal. Ambition not to resign ourselves. Ambition to take the best potential from ourselves. Ambition to deserve ourselves. Ambition to be athletes in our top-level competitive jobs. Ambition to beat our brands. Ambition to get the best deals with the maximum value, due to the high levels of proficiency and efficiency.
Esthetics. ESTHETICS (from the Greek aisthetiké, "sensitive") n.f. 1. Philosophy branch of philosophy that studies the beauty and nature of artistic phenomena; 2. author's own style, time, etc.; 3. harmony of shapes and colors, beauty; 4. set of techniques and treatments that aim to beautify the body.
We decided to build the company's economic foundations under a cultured, cosmopolitan and cool image. Because it is a charming state of being. Good taste because we are sustainable and we respect the planet. Good taste because we are sensitive. Good taste just because.
Responsibility. (from the lat respondere) n. the trait of being answerable to someone for something or being responsible for one's conduct; a form of trustworthiness.
We must be certain that, before a choice, we chose what is best for both of us and not just the best for each one. Each employee is responsible for his negotiated activity and co-responsible if the co-worker does not fulfil his own task, thus preventing the common goal. A team is a set of individuals - is a whole. In the business game, as in social or family contexts, everyone must comply with their own relative position and we shall not permit that one of ours fails to be in our team.
Sapo
From clothes made in Guimarães and glasses made in Vila do Conde to façades from Braga, tents from Freamunde or merchandising from Vizela, Portuguese companies have taken advantage of the Olympic Games to boost exports.
When the Portuguese delegation sailed on one of the 94 boats that covered six kilometers of the Seine, from the Austerlitz Bridge to the Eiffel Tower, enthusiasm for the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games was redoubled in Guimarães. Decenio, the clothing brand that the Cães de Pedra group bought in 2014 from the bankrupt Ricon, and which has more than 30 shops in the country, selling online to a hundred countries, designed and produced the uniforms for the 73 athletes who will represent Portugal. Each athlete was given 25 items, ranging from suits, polo shirts, sweaters, skirts, shorts, caps, scarves, and trainers.
This is the second time that the brand owned by the group led by Ricardo Herculano Fernandes has been responsible for the official costumes of the Portuguese team at the Olympics, after its debut in Tokyo. “An event of this scale obviously brings us immeasurable recognition and renown,” marketing manager Carolina Rodrigues told ECO. They will be worn on more formal occasions and at official ceremonies, such as the opening and closing ceremonies. And the standard-bearers, the canoeist Fernando Pimenta, and the walker Ana Cabecinha, wore outfits designed exclusively for this moment, hand-embroidered over two months by the Aliança Artesanal Cooperative in Vila Verde.
On their faces, the national athletes will wear sunglasses with frames produced at the Okiatto workshop in Vilar, a small parish in Vila do Conde, where Israeli giant Shamir produces ophthalmic lenses for prescription glasses. “This is a start-up that was born in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, and is located at Shamir’s headquarters in Portugal. One of the focuses of this project was precisely the recovery of endangered professions, such as is the case with craftspeople. The handmade production of frames is one of these crafts, and is increasingly rare in Europe,” Luís Feijó, CEO of the Portuguese subsidiary, explained to ECO.
The Lisbon manager, who was recruited in January 2005 from Carl Zeiss in Setúbal, speaks of a “contract with a very significant value for Shamir Portugal, with a distinct set of benefits for both parties.” With the Olympic Games being one of the most watched sporting events in the world, it is a “unique opportunity for exposure, involving prestige and credibility for the brand worldwide.” “Seeing glasses from the Okiatto collection make up the national costumes of our athletes will surely be an exciting and memorable moment for those whose hands, every day, play a leading role in the manufacture of these frames,” he adds.
Jorge Carneiro, Bysteel’s commercial manager, felt this emotion last summer when, after five months of work, the 10,000 square meter façade in aluminum, glass, and composite material that he designed and made for the arena that will stage the badminton and gymnastics competitions at the Olympics and weightlifting at the Paralympics was completed. Through Bysteel FS, which specializes in the design, engineering and manufacture of façades and architectural envelopes for buildings, the DST group company won a contract worth 5.5 million for the construction of the architectural envelope for the Porte de la Chapelle Arena.
The spokesperson for the Braga-based company, which has a factory with an area of around 8,000 square meters, told ECO that this contract “came about at the invitation of the site management of the general contractor Bouygues, as a result of the good relationship established during other works with the same client.” “It’s a project with great visibility from the Périphérique [a 35-kilometre beltway outside Paris], and it went very well in terms of deadlines and quality of construction,” he added.
It was in this country in 2012 that Bysteel, which has 414 employees, began the process of its internationalization in Europe, at that time with an initial contract worth 250,000 euros. France is currently the largest market for the company from Minho, having contributed last year around 50% of its total turnover of 59.5 million euros. In the Paris region, it currently has several orders in the pipeline, such as the metal structures and architectural envelopes for the three stations (Palaiseu, St Aubin, Orsay) of the French capital’s new Metro line 18.
From Braga to Freamunde (Paços de Ferreira municipality), Irmarfer has also been busy in recent months supplying technical flooring and other materials to the operators involved in assembling the structures for the Games, such as the stands and the fencing. But the “largest presence” in Paris, the head of the company specializing in the production and rental of temporary structures told ECO, is at the parallel events organized by the Games or by other private clients, such as the Brazilian embassy, which will be using its orbital-shaped structures for gala dinners.
“A lot of our business comes from creative and marketing agencies, who are already familiar with us from past endeavors. We’ve been working with them for over a year to put these structures in place,” emphasized Afonso Barros. Since 2019, it has been jointly owned (50%/50%) by the Crest private equity fund and the five Ferreira brothers, who founded the business 25 years ago. It was involved in the Rio de Janeiro Games (2016) and is investing in a logistics hub of around 5,000 square meters in France, near Lyon, to “facilitate operations” in Central Europe, serving the French, Swiss, German, Italian and Belgian markets from there.
With nearly 240 workers and two industrial facilities in Freamunde – in addition to the factory built nine years ago for event structures and stages, the group’s other two companies are located in the original complex: S2E (stands for fairs) and Imagindustrial graphics (large digital printing) –, Irmarfer has clients mainly in music festivals, in corporate events - Web Summit is the largest in Portugal, with more than 30 specific structures – and in sport. A few months ago, it made its Formula 1 debut with the help of Rock in Rio.
Business in and out of competition
Accustomed to producing millions of scarves, beanies, caps, flags and other sports props for major sports competitions and European clubs such as Bayern Munich, Roma, Chelsea and Marseille, the Portuguese company 4 Teams also took advantage of the Paris Olympics to boost sales, which last year totaled 6.4 million euros. Exports account for around 90% of turnover and its best customers are in the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Sweden.
“We produced around six to seven thousand pieces of sports merchandising for various events, including corporate events, organized by our clients, and related to the Olympic Games. We are talking about T-shirts, polo shirts, trousers, jackets, and certain sublimated towels [with printed designs],” Nuno Santos, commercial director of the Vizela company, which employs around a hundred people at the factory, told ECO.