It was at the geographical boundary between the edge of the Serra de Sicó mountain range and the beginning of Pinhal Interior, in the central area, right in the heart of Portugal, that over 100 years ago a family started a fabric business for the manufacture of shawls.
From the production of this feminine accessory and protection from the cold, typical in traditional Portuguese clothing, we expanded into the production of wool fabrics for both men’s and women’s garments.
Nonetheless, it was a son of the second generation of artisans, Armando Simões Fareleiro, who at the beginning of the 1940s turned the artisan quality of a passion into an Industry that began to prosper in the town of Avelar, located in the municipality of Ansião near Coimbra.
In the following years, due to an ever increasing demand, technicians came from diverse parts of the country and Europe. Qualified staff, who believed in the potential and features that this people and their knowledge could enhance, arrived from Covilhã and Barcelona, Braga and Biella (Italy), as well as other textile centres of excellence from various regions of Europe. Already at the end of the Second World War, with the Portuguese Economy based on colonisation and taking the first steps to export to Europe, this know-how flourished and gained sustainability by turning the existing industry into a supplier of several European capitals.
Shortly after the social, economic and political upheavals resulting from the April Revolution of 1974, Portugal was able to open up to the World and become a truly exporting Country. In our case – FARELEIROS – we began to learn from our customers and from the challenge of the market itself.
Today, we are a company based on a professional management that succeeds in conveying the true values of its family foundation.
We work as a team and drink from the well of our parents’ and grandparents’ teachings.
We make our own product the way we learnt it from our ancestors and we have modernised the process with the help from advanced technologies.
We are equipped with high-precision machinery: we treat and warp the yarn, weave, dye and finish our fabrics within flexible industrial processes that enable us to adapt the service to our customer.
We are not the biggest nor the best factory in the world.
But no one makes this product with greater Passion.
We are passionate about Wool.
We are passionate about Fabric.
