Tearfil – Indústria Têxtil, S.A. (NIF 514993820), a yarn-spinning mill at Moreira de Cónegos, Guimarães, founded in 1973 and owned since July 2019 by the entrepreneur Maria de Belém Machado, is the Portuguese conversion partner of Finland’s Spinnova Plc. Spinnova signed a fibre-supply letter of intent with the mill on 14 January 2026 and, on 17 September 2026, a further non-binding letter of intent to acquire 100 percent of its shares at an initial valuation of €500,000, with a €1.5 million bridge loan while Tearfil restructures through a PER. Turnover fell to €8.57 million in 2025 from €12.94 million in 2024.
Tearfil is the point where a Finnish fibre becomes a Portuguese yarn. The mill has spun yarn in the Vale do Ave since 1973 and belonged for most of the last decade to MoreTextile, the home-textiles group assembled in 2011 around JMA Felpos, António Almeida & Filhos and Coelima; in July 2019 the group sold the spinning business to Maria de Belém Machado, who has since run it as an independent company with, at the time of the sale, some 300 customers, about 200 employees and €12 million of turnover. Its relationship with Spinnova began as a development partnership: on 14 January 2026 the two signed a non-binding letter of intent under which Tearfil would secure future SPINNOVA fibre volumes and introduce yarn blends containing the wood-based fibre to European textile customers.
Eight months later the partnership turned into a takeover plan. On 17 September 2026 Spinnova announced a non-binding letter of intent to acquire all of Tearfil’s shares for an initial valuation of €500,000, payable in cash and Spinnova shares, with completion targeted for the first quarter of 2027 and conditional on due diligence, Spinnova board approval and the creditors’ and court approval of Tearfil’s PER recovery plan. Spinnova first intends to lend the mill €1.5 million to carry it through the restructuring; the mill’s turnover fell 34 percent in 2025 and its loss widened to €3.3 million even as fixed assets almost doubled. The brands around the fibre are largely Nordic, from Bestseller’s JACK & JONES to ECCO, which is why a Guimarães spinner is the natural place to make it.
Tearfil matters because it reverses the usual textile flow of the corridor. Portuguese mills normally supply Nordic brands; here Finnish capital is moving to own a Portuguese conversion step outright, at a price that values the equity after a debt restructuring rather than the business. If completed, it would be one of the few cases of a Nordic materials company owning production in the Vale do Ave, and a template for other Nordic industrials looking at family-owned mills with modern equipment and thin balance sheets.
17 September 2026: Spinnova Plc signed the acquisition letter of intent and announced the proposed €1.5 million bridge loan, with documentation expected “in the coming weeks”. NorthSouth HQ’s report: Finland’s Spinnova moves to buy Tearfil.
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