Clothing Manufacturer for Portuguese Brands

For knit basics from 150 pieces per style and colour, Bangladesh usually gives the lower landed cost; for small multi-colour runs, woven pieces or a re-cut next week, a Portuguese workshop is usually the better buy. Portugal's northern cluster, Barcelos, Póvoa de Varzim and Guimarães, is the low-minimum benchmark the rest of Europe compares against, and a Portuguese founder can drive to a workshop that will cut fifty pieces. IVA is 23% either way: buying at home saves the import and the customs entry, not the tax. Our case is narrower: tees, hoodies and joggers cut and sewn from 150 pieces per style and colour, duty-free under Everything But Arms, with organic cotton under our GOTS certification, RSC 9687. Our unit price falls as a style's quantity rises, so the case strengthens on reorders. We do not make denim, jackets or woven shirts. Brands selling across Europe often keep hero pieces in Portugal and place the basics with us.

No: knitwear cut and sewn on our floor enters Portugal at 0% duty under the EU's Everything But Arms scheme, whose single-transformation origin rule our floor satisfies. The customs entry at Sines, Leixões or Lisbon and the import IVA still apply; only the duty is zero. Against the other routes a Portuguese brand weighs, a Chinese garment pays the standard EU rate, a Vietnamese one gets the EU–Vietnam agreement's preference only where its fabric-origin rules are met, Turkish goods in free circulation pay none under the customs union, and a workshop in Barcelos needs no customs entry. Bangladesh's graduation from Least Developed Country status is now set for 24 November 2029, after the General Assembly granted Dhaka more time on 29 October 2026. Regulation (EU) 2026/1395 extends EBA access for three years beyond graduation, so a Portuguese buyer faces no duty to about the end of 2032. Our LDC graduation guide covers what may follow.

Import VAT (IVA) on clothing in mainland Portugal is 23%, the normal rate. Article 18 of the Código do IVA (read 27 Sep 2026) sets 23% for goods not on Lists I and II, which carry 6% and 13%, and clothing is on neither. The Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira charges this IVA at import on the customs value plus any duty and the transport and insurance costs to the first place of destination. With duty at zero, 500 tees at a US$3,000 customs value carry US$690, plus 23% of any onward transport to that first destination. We ship DDP, so the IVA sits inside the landed price you approve rather than as a separate bill. A VAT-registered importer normally recovers it through its periodic return, so ask who will be named importer on your entry before counting on that. In our landed-cost calculator, choose Other EU member state and enter 23%. The Azores and Madeira have lower regional rates, quoted separately.

The simplest route is DDP: we deliver to your door in mainland Portugal with freight, the customs entry and the import IVA inside one landed price and no separate bill at the port. Sea freight comes in through Sines, Leixões or Lisbon; air freight lands at Lisbon or Porto, Porto being nearer for a brand in the Minho. The commercial invoice and packing list reach you before the goods move. Under the General Product Safety Regulation, a company importing from us in Portugal is the EU-established responsible economic operator and must be able to produce the technical file, which is kept for ten years; our Journal guide to GPSR for clothing brands walks through it, and GOTS certificate RSC 9687 supplies the fibre and chemistry evidence. Bangladesh is five to six hours ahead of Portugal, so your morning overlaps the floor's afternoon, and our Amsterdam office, one hour ahead of Lisbon, covers the rest of the day for samples and paperwork, in English.

Yes: our minimum is 150 pieces per style and per colour, so one tee in one colour is a complete order. Each colour counts separately because each colour is its own dye lot, measured in hundreds of kilos. A first range of two styles in two colours is 600 pieces. Spread over a common size curve, 150 pieces gives roughly 8 XS, 22 S, 45 M, 45 L, 15 XL and 15 XXL. Northern Portuguese minimums run from 50 to 150. White Cotton in Barcelos takes 75 per colourway across two or more, but its tees start at 150 in one colourway or 100 per colourway across two. If you want a hoodie in five colours at 75 each, a Barcelos workshop fits better. If you want one colour deep, 150 from us makes sense, and that style's GPSR file can be reused on reorders of the same specification. The MOQ calculator shows how a Portuguese first range splits across sizes and colours.

Start in the northern textile cluster around Barcelos, Póvoa de Varzim and Guimarães, and shortlist workshops that publish their minimums and name their certificates. Our low-MOQ manufacturers guide profiles two there: White Cotton in Barcelos, at 75 pieces per colourway across two or more colours or 100 in a single colourway (tees and shirts 150 in one colourway, or 100 per colourway across two), and Create Fashion Brand in Póvoa de Varzim, at 150 per model and colour from scratch or 50 for customising blanks. Both name their certifications but publish no certificate numbers, so ask to see the certificates themselves. Because you are in Portugal, visit: see the floor and ask whether they own the production or coordinate other workshops. When you compare fabricante de roupa offers from abroad, ask for the factory's street address and a live video call from the floor during a working shift. Ours is Plot-A-132, Road No. 02, BSCIC Industrial Area, Panchabati, Narayanganj 1420.

Yes. Decreto-Lei 238/86 requires information on the nature and characteristics of goods offered on the Portuguese market to be in Portuguese, and Article 16(3) of Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 requires the fibre label to be in the official language of the member state where the garment is sold to the consumer. Portugal applies the regulation through Decreto-Lei 257/2012: every fibre by its generic name and percentage, in descending order, on a durable, legible label, so '100% algodão' rather than '100% cotton'. The ASAE lists Regulation 1007/2011 and Decreto-Lei 257/2012. A 'fabricado no Bangladesh' line is optional under the fibre regulation, but any origin you print must be true. Our floor sews the Portuguese label to your artwork, with other languages alongside if you also sell elsewhere in the Union. The General Product Safety Regulation also requires the manufacturer's name and postal and electronic address, and a type or batch number, on the garment or its packaging; selling under your own name or trademark makes you that manufacturer under Article 3(8).

About ten days for sampling, forty to fifty days for production once the pre-production sample is signed off, then transit to Sines, Leixões or Lisbon by sea, sometimes on a direct deep-sea service into Sines, or to Lisbon or Porto by air in days; we confirm the figure for your port with the quote. Sines takes direct deep-sea calls on the Atlantic side of Gibraltar, so a shipment on one of those services does not need a northern European transshipment. Air into Lisbon or Porto suits a small first run you need on the shelf for a launch; sea suits volume. Our DDP price to the mainland includes the customs entry, the 23% IVA and the last leg to your door. If a piece must be in a Lisbon shop at short notice, a Portuguese workshop is the right call. The launch-date calculator works back from a Lisbon or Porto on-sale date. From order to your door, plan on about 70 days by air.

Yes, on a separate quote, because the islands set their own IVA rates. Article 18(3) of the Código do IVA lets the regional legislative assemblies set lower rates, including on imports whose customs clearance takes place in the islands. The Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira's Ofício Circulado 25045 of 6 December 2024 (read 27 Sep 2026) gives the normal rate as 16% in the Azores and 22% in Madeira. On a US$3,000 tax base, that is US$480 or US$660 of IVA, against US$690 on the mainland. So the rate for your order depends on where the goods clear customs, and we state it in the quote. Duty stays at zero under Everything But Arms. The Portuguese label and the GPSR file are the same as for a Lisbon or Porto delivery. Tell us the island and address when you ask for a quote, and we will quote the delivery terms with it.

Yes. Send the approved garment from your workshop, or its tech pack, and we measure it, note the fabric composition and GSM, and specify a matching jersey from the partner mills that knit and dye for us. The fabric will not come from the same Portuguese mill, so judge the hand-feel on our counter sample, which takes about 10 days, rather than on a spec sheet. Colour is approved on a physical lab dip that we keep on file, not on a code read off a screen, so later batches match the first. Production then runs 40 to 50 days from your sample approval, plus freight to Sines, Leixões or Lisbon. Moving one basic first, and keeping the rest of the range at home until you have seen the bulk, is a sensible test. If the style sells in five colours at 75 pieces each, keep it in Portugal: our minimum is 150 per style and colour.

Yes, and the labels need the most care. The fibre content goes in Portuguese on every piece, such as "100% algodão", whoever sews it. Origin is optional, but if you print it, a Barcelos piece can say fabricado em Portugal while ours must name Bangladesh, which is what the customs entry records; one label artwork with a different origin line usually covers both. Under the General Product Safety Regulation you are the manufacturer of both when they carry your name, so each style needs its own technical file and a type or batch number on the garment or packaging. Keep one size specification and grading rule across both makers so a medium fits the same, and approve shades against the same physical standard. Plan the calendar as well: our pieces need about 10 days of sampling and 40 to 50 days of production before freight, so place the basics with us first.