Acatel – Acabamentos Têxteis, S.A. (NIF 501626980) is a dyer, printer and finisher of knitted fabrics in Gilmonde, Barcelos, part of the Barcelos textile group Impetus, with about 200 employees (2022) and turnover of close to €12 million in 2020. H&M Group’s public supplier list (August 2026, version 1.2) names its Gilmonde plant as an owned component unit with less than three years of business with the Swedish group, and in 2024 the company used Circulose, the recycled fibre developed by Sweden’s Renewcell, in a fabric that won a Best Product award at ISPO Textrends.
nif.pt and the racius register list the company as Acatel – Acabamentos Têxteis, S.A. (NIF 501626980), a public limited company at Rua do Barreiro 310, 4755-230 Barcelos, with share capital of €4,000,000 and the dyeing, printing and finishing of knitted fabrics (CAE 13301) as its activity. Acatel says it has been active since 1985. In a September 2022 interview with Portugal Têxtil, CEO Susana Serrano said it had been set up by a group of partners who bought knitted fabric and had it processed there, that it had long been seen as a service company, and that it had about 200 employees. It belongs to the Barcelos textile group Impetus. Its turnover was about €11 million in 2019 and close to €12 million in 2020, and Serrano expected it to pass €12 million in 2021. In April 2024 she put the dye house’s capacity at 15 tonnes a day, said 25% of sales were exported directly, named France and Spain as the main markets, with the UK added, and said the company had “its eyes on the Nordic markets”. In 2022 she had already named the Nordic market as the one Acatel wanted to reach next.
The Nordic link is H&M Group. H&M’s public supplier list (August 2026 edition, version 1.2) names Acatel’s factory at Rua do Barreiro 310, Gilmonde, as a component unit owned by the supplier itself, in the 1–500 workers band, with less than three years of business with H&M. It is one of eight Portuguese rows on which H&M reports that a trade union exists at the site. Acatel also works with Swedish materials: at Première Vision in 2024 it showed fabrics in Circulose, the recycled cellulose fibre developed by Sweden’s Renewcell, pigment-dyed in a single step — a development that, according to Portugal Têxtil, earned Acatel a Best Product distinction at the ISPO Textrends Awards. In March 2026 general manager Helder Rosendo presented the Acatel Innovation Hub and announced that the UK’s Alchemie Technology would install a digital precision-jet dyeing machine at the plant. Alchemie says the machine dyes knitted fabric in 22 seconds instead of about four hours.
Acatel is one of 18 Portuguese rows on H&M Group’s August 2026 list that are component or processing units rather than garment factories, and one of 11 of those added in the last three years. That shows the Swedish group reaching further back into the Portuguese supply chain, to dyeing and finishing as well as garment making. Nine of the 63 Portuguese rows are in Barcelos, including the garment groups Becri and Valérius, which NorthSouth HQ examined in its 6 October analysis of the list. Acatel has said publicly that it wants Nordic customers, and it already works with a Swedish recycled fibre and has a listing with H&M. Its work on low-water dyeing, natural dyes and traceability matches what Nordic brands ask of their suppliers on sustainability.
4 April 2024 — At Première Vision, Acatel shows Circulose (Renewcell) and Good Earth Cotton fabrics and says it has its eyes on the Nordic markets; 2023 turnover came in slightly below 2022 (Portugal Têxtil).
4 June 2024 — Acatel wins the grand prize and the environment category of the fourth Prémios Inovação em Prevenção (Exame and Ageas Seguros) with its “Micro Nebula” low-water dyeing project, which uses bacteria to produce colour (O Minho).
3 December 2024 — Two Acatel fabrics are selected in the Street Sports category of the ISPO Textrends Awards 2024 in Munich (O Minho, citing Jornal T).
3 March 2026 — Acatel presents its Innovation Hub at Première Vision and announces the installation of an Alchemie digital precision-jet dyeing machine (Portugal Têxtil).
August 2026 — H&M Group’s public supplier list (version 1.2) names Acatel as an owned component unit with less than three years of business with H&M.
Sources: H&M Group Public Supplier List, August 2026 (v1.2) via hmgroup.com; racius.com and nif.pt (NIF 501626980); acatel.pt; Portugal Têxtil, “Acatel prepara nova estratégia” (19 October 2021), “Definimos uma nova forma de estar dentro da Acatel” (13 September 2022), “O coração verde da Acatel” (4 April 2024) and “Acatel reúne novas tecnologias no Innovation Hub” (3 March 2026); O Minho, “Empresa têxtil de Barcelos ganha prémio nacional de inovação” (4 June 2024) and “Empresas de Barcelos e Guimarães premiadas num dos maiores encontros mundiais do têxtil” (4 December 2024).
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