Recover partners with US-based Intradeco to build a recycled fibre plant in El Salvador
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Madrid – Spanish company Recover, the spin-off of Valencian firm Hilaturas Ferre specialising in the production of recycled cotton fibres, continued to expand its operations. It sealed a strategic partnership with US-based Intradeco. This alliance aims to boost both companies' business models in the Americas sustainably. It will do this through the establishment of a joint venture and the construction of a recycled fibre production plant in El Salvador.
Recover, a company specialising in the large-scale production of high-quality recycled cotton fibres and recycled cotton fibre blends, and Intradeco, a Miami-based company with a strong operational presence in Central America dedicated to the production of fashion garments, formalised the creation of a joint venture. It will specialise in the production of recycled garments. These pieces will be made from the recycled fibres obtained from Recover's patented, low environmental impact process for recycling blends and pure cotton fibres. The Spanish company will put this process at the service of this joint venture, of which it will also become a “fundamental pillar” of its operations. These processes will be completed with Intradeco's specialisation in the manufacture of all kinds of clothing for companies such as Wrangler, Guy Harvey and Lee. These specialisations will come together under the umbrella of their joint venture, for which a new recycled fibre production plant will also be built in El Salvador as a base for its operations.
“We are pleased to partner with Intradeco to bring our sustainable textile solutions to the Americas and to address the growing demand for ‘nearshoring’ in the region,” said Recover chief executive officer, Anders Sjöblom, in a statement released by the Valencian textile company. The creation of “this joint venture” is “another step on our path to drive sustainable change on a large scale in fashion, generating business value and inspiration”. Sjöblom added that “together”, Recover and Intradeco “aspire to support new business models and foster innovation and sustainability in the textile industry”.
“At Intradeco, we are excited to partner with Recover to enhance our production capacity and offer high-quality, scaled recycled products to our customers,” said Intradeco chief executive officer, Jaime Miguel. He emphasised that “this alliance represents a significant step forward in our commitment to sustainability”. This commitment now leads to the creation of this joint venture with the Spanish company. The joint venture is born with the dual objective of promoting the scaling of Recover's recycled cotton fibre production and ensuring the profitability and outlet for this increased production through the manufacture of more garments from Recover's recycled fibres. With these pieces, the parties will also respond to the growing demand for more sustainable and lower environmental impact garments, which are demanded today by both consumers and fashion brands.
New factory in El Salvador
As the base of its operations, the new joint venture between Recover and Intradeco will be based in El Salvador, where a new production plant will be built for the treatment, recycling and obtaining of recycled cotton fibres. These will be used as raw material for the manufacture of new garments. This new plant will be positioned as the key piece of this new circular production model that Recover and Intradeco are trying to promote in the region through this partnership. Once it is up and running, the plant will be incorporated into the network of factories from which proximity production of recycled fibres is currently being advanced, based on Recover's patented processes, from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietnam and Spain. The joint venture with Intradeco will also begin operating in its initial phase from Recover's country of origin, until the new processing plant in El Salvador is up and running, which is expected by September 2025.
As for why El Salvador, and why now for the creation of this joint venture between Recover and Intradeco, both questions are answered by the current context of uncertainty that prevails in the value chains of the textile and fashion industries. This is due to the instabilities and insecurities caused by the new tariff policies on imports decreed by the US. These measures have completely destabilised the country's trade relations with all its main trading partners. From FashionUnited, we warned from day one how they had come to completely undermine the supply networks of the textile and fashion industries. Although these effects have been reduced following subsequent decisions by US President Donald J. Trump to introduce a partial and temporary moratorium on these policies, they have given way to a new horizon of uncertainty. Companies are trying to move to be prepared for any possible scenario.
This context is leading many companies and multinationals, especially those with a presence and activity in the US, to redirect their production to countries with lower, and potentially lower, tariff burdens. These countries include El Salvador, which is subject to the minimum additional tariff of 10 percent imposed by Trump on imports to the US from his new tariff policy. This burden is currently reduced to zero, as a result of a “90-day pause” announced on April 9.
With this context in mind, the joint venture between Recover and Intradeco will be based in El Salvador. It will try to take advantage of “the strategic position of the region in the textile economy of the Americas, offering fast and flexible proximity production models to the supply chains” of its customers, Recover said. At the same time, it will allow “both companies to capitalise on the growing importance of the CAFTA region (the Free Trade Agreement between the US and Central America), where major brands and retail companies are establishing production centres in response to recent trade tensions in the Americas”.
In that very objective, “the new processing plant in Central America” for recycled fibres, which, with Recover's patented technology, will be launched through this “joint venture”, will be “strategically located close to textile waste and production flows, which will allow it to operate profitably, offering fast delivery times and reducing the carbon footprint of supply chains”. In addition, the partnership between Recover and Intradeco will simplify “compliance with the UFLPA (the US law against the prevention of forced labour of the Uyghur minority in China) by US textile and apparel manufacturers”, Recover concluded, “while addressing the growing demand for proximity production”.
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