Polopiqué, a Portuguese textile giant — court declared two units insolvent with €66M debt

Polopiqué was a Portuguese textile group founded in 1996 and headquartered in Santo Tirso, with units in Vizela and Guimarães. It employed about 800 people across the full textile value chain — yarn, weaving, finishing, design, logistics, and sales. It was considered a major European textile player and participated in the Projeto Lusitano, a €111.5 million national investment programme.

After the energy crisis of 2022, the group's turnover dropped steadily. By 2025 the decline had become critical. The group entered a deep restructuring: it filed for insolvency of its two weakest units (Polopiqué II – Tecidos and Cottonsmile Confecções), launched a Processo Especial de Revitalização (PER) for the others, closed two factories, and started selling assets. The Court of Guimarães declared both subsidiaries insolvent, leaving 274 workers unemployed — with plans for up to 400 layoffs from the initial 800 workforce.

Total debt was €66.5 million across 420 creditors. The largest creditors were BCP (€14.2M), Inditex (€12.6M), and Caixa Geral de Depósitos (€6.5M). The equipment of the insolvent units was auctioned at a base value of €2.3 million. The group had posted net losses of €1.3M (holding), €1.6M (Polopiqué Tecidos), and over €1M (Cottonsmile) in 2023 alone.