Choosing a factory in Portugal, and what to ask first

Portugal is the main route in the first year, and there are four reasons: the capacity exists, the fabric industry sits in the same valley, the tariff is zero and transport takes two to five days. We can travel there in the morning and be back the following evening.

The question that decides everything

Minimum quantity is nearly always given as a number per style. Fifty, a hundred, three hundred. That number is meaningless until the next question has been asked: does it apply per colour, or per order?

A hundred garments per style in three colours is three hundred garments if the quantity applies per colour. For a brand launching with eleven to thirteen sizes, that is the difference between a possible and an impossible collection.

Ask the question in writing. An answer given in a meeting is not an answer.

Clusters and names

The list is a longlist, not a recommendation. None of them has said yes to us, and we do not print a factory name on a product page before the contract exists.

The lead time arithmetic

Count backwards from when the goods have to be in stock. Never forwards from today.

• Fabric delivery: three to six weeks for stock quality, eight to twelve for custom-developed
• Sampling round: twelve to sixteen weeks for a tailored garment
• Production: four to eight weeks
• Transport: two to five days within the EU
• Holiday closure: two to three weeks in summer, add it

The sum is twenty to thirty weeks for a garment developed from scratch. That means a blazer for 5 November 2026 cannot make it through a new factory, and the decision becomes binary: white label now, or own development for spring.

We chose white label for the blazer and own development for the scarf. That is not a compromise, it is letting two different products follow two different timetables.

What a tech pack has to contain

Without a tech pack there is no quote that can be compared. Send the same brief to at least three factories per product group, otherwise you are comparing factories by comparing three different descriptions of the same garment.

• Technical sketch front and back, with every seam
• Measurement list with tolerances per size, the full grading
• Material specification with weight, composition and supplier
• Trims list: thread, buttons, zips, labels, hangtag
• Construction notes for the seams that are critical
• Label and marking placement, dimensioned
• Requirement specification: PFAS, certificates, test reports

Price comes last

Portuguese factories do not publish their prices for cutting, making and trimming, and the figures circulating in trade articles did not hold when we examined them. Price is set per tech pack, fabric choice, construction and volume.

That means every cost in our own calculation is an assumption until three quotes exist. We write that in every document where the figure appears, and we recommend that anyone reading a trade calculation does the same.