NKT Grows Former SolidAl Plant in Esposende to 580 Workers as €50 Million Expansion Opens

NKT, the Danish power-cable maker listed on Nasdaq Copenhagen, now employs 580 people at the former SolidAl factory in Esposende, in the Braga district, and is inaugurating an expansion of the plant on Tuesday 20 October, Jornal de Negócios reported. When NKT bought the company in June 2024, SolidAl had 430 workers, according to ECO and O Minho. That is 150 additional jobs, or about 35%, in a little over two years under Danish ownership.

Sources: Jornal de Negócios (19–20 October 2026); NKT releases of 21 June 2024, 28 January 2025, 11 June 2025 and NKT’s H1 2026 interim report (13 August 2026); ECO; O Minho.

From family firm to Danish factory

SolidAl was founded in 1970 and later passed to the Quintas & Quintas group before being sold to the international private equity firm Njord Partners, which in turn sold it to NKT in a transaction valued at €192 million, Jornal de Negócios recalls. In its June 2024 acquisition release, NKT described SolidAl as one of Portugal’s leading power-cable makers, with more than 50 years of supplying cables to projects in over 40 countries. The deal was unconditional and closed on the day it was announced. François Moufflet, SolidAl’s chief executive at the time, said he “could not think of a better owner” to back the company’s commercial reach and technical capabilities (NorthSouth HQ translation, as for all Portuguese quotations here).

A year later, in June 2025, NKT dropped the SolidAl name and put the site under its own brand. The company said the Esposende plant had integrated smoothly into its Applications business line and had contributed “solid revenue and EBITDA” in the three preceding quarters. It also said the move would strengthen NKT’s position in Spain, Portugal, Ireland, the United Kingdom and France. Dinis Pinto, NKT’s vice-president of operations for Iberia, said the company was now “stronger” in meeting customers’ needs and growing the business. O Minho reported at the time that the factory covers 70,000 square metres.

A €50 million expansion, ahead of schedule

As part of the purchase, NKT committed about €50 million to expand medium- and high-voltage production at the existing Esposende site. In June 2024 it said the new capacity should be running in 2027, and it repeated that date in January 2025, when it completed medium-voltage expansions in Velké Meziříčí (Czech Republic) and Falun (Sweden). By August 2026 the schedule had moved forward. NKT’s H1 2026 interim report says the additional medium-voltage capacity in Portugal is “expected to become operational at the end of 2026”. That makes it the first of NKT’s current group projects to finish after Denmark’s Asnæs plant, ahead of the new high-voltage factory in Karlskrona, the extra capacity in Cologne and a second cable-laying vessel, all due in 2027. Jornal de Negócios reports that the expansion is being inaugurated this week. NKT has not yet published its own statement on the opening, and figures for the plant’s output or capacity after the expansion have not been disclosed.

What Esposende supplies

The clearest public link between Esposende and a named customer is in France. In November 2024 France’s transmission system operator RTE extended two framework agreements with NKT for onshore high-voltage cables, accessories and installation from 2026 to 2028, at 90 kV, 225 kV and 400 kV. According to POWER Magazine, the agreements include firm commitments of about 1,400 kilometres of cable, roughly 900 km at 90 kV and 500 km at 225 kV. Deliveries will come from NKT’s sites in Esposende and Cologne. The same report says the extra capacity is meant to serve other transmission and distribution operators across Europe as well.

The group behind the plant

NKT, founded in 1891 and headquartered in Denmark, reported revenue of €3.3 billion in 2024 and about 6,000 employees, according to its June 2025 release. In August it raised its 2026 outlook. It now expects revenue at standard metal prices of about €2.65–2.75 billion and operational EBITDA of about €400–430 million, up from €360–410 million previously. At the end of June its Transmission order backlog stood at €13.0 billion. Revenue at standard metal prices fell 9% organically in the second quarter as the Champlain Hudson Power Express link in the US moved into commercial operation and project activity there slowed. Esposende, which makes onshore medium- and high-voltage cables, gives NKT exposure to the flow of orders from grid operators modernising ageing networks.

A competitor down the road

NKT is not the only cable maker adding capacity in the Minho region. In November 2025 e24 reported that Portugal’s Cabelte, which the outlet called a competitor of NKT’s Esposende plant, planned a new medium- and high-voltage cable factory in Ribeirão, Vila Nova de Famalicão. The project has “project of national interest” status and is described as a €143 million investment. It covers a 30,000 m² hall with six production lines, adds 30,000 tonnes of annual capacity and is expected to create 150 direct jobs. Construction was due to start in mid-2026 and finish in 2027. The two projects together point to northern Portugal becoming a significant supply base for the cables Europe’s grid operators are buying.

What to watch

Three things are worth following: whether NKT discloses the capacity and product range added at Esposende once production ramps up; whether the plant starts appearing by name in further framework agreements with European grid operators beyond RTE; and how the region’s labour market copes as NKT, Cabelte and other industrial employers on the Cávado coast, including Wärtsilä’s engine unit in the same town, compete for skilled staff. For Nordic industrial groups weighing a Portuguese acquisition, Esposende is a useful reference: a Danish buyer took over a 54-year-old local manufacturer, kept the site, invested in it and added 150 jobs within about two years. Other Danish companies active in Portugal are listed in the NorthSouth HQ directory of Danish companies in Portugal.