On the factory floor of TMG - Têxtil Manuel Gonçalves, in Vale S. Cosme, there are the usual sections associated to production, like making, packing and spinning, but there is also a Textile Development Centre, where new products are created, new materials and applications are researched, more sustainable methods are sought and collections are designed.
Innovation and sustainability are concepts about the day of this historic famalicense group with more than 80 years of experience that holds a very important position in the world textile and automobile market. The example of "innovation with responsibility for social and environmental sustainability" from TMG gave yesterday the motto for the start of the Famalicão Created IN itinerary with which the Mayor, Mário Passos, intends to value, disclose and honour the famalicense industry which today, much more than manufacturing, creates, innovates and adds value.
TMG's example is paradigmatic. With a very prominent position in the world textile and automobile market, the TMG Group is one of the most recognised brands in Portugal and in the world. It exports to more than 40 markets and manages a wide portfolio of businesses. Besides the textile and automobile industries, it has diversified its businesses in the areas of retail textiles, private helicopter operations, wine production and production of hydroelectric power and cogeneration.
An example of this commitment to sustainability and environmental protection is Lightning Bolt, a brand of sustainably produced clothing and accessories, managed by the TMG Group since 2006, which recently placed ecological surfboards on the market, with a greater reduction of environmental impact.
Lightning Bolt's classic old maxim, "Destroy the waves not the beaches", is a very current image of the company's commitment to sustainability. "For us sustainability is not a product, it is a process, a concept present in the day-to-day life of the company and in the different stages of production", says company director Manuel Gonçalves.
This commitment is duly formalised with TMG's adhesion to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), a United Nations initiative of corporate citizenship, subscribing the 10 principles of Sustainable Development.
