Spanish Group Nextil Enters U.S. Market as Part of €100M Global Growth Strategy

Nextil, aiming for the €100 million barrier. The historic Spanish group Nueva Expresión Textil (Nextil), which became one of the largest industrial companies in the country, still under the name of Dogi, has set itself the goal of closing 2026 with, at least, a turnover exceeding €100 million. With no industrial structure in Spain, production plants in Guatemala to supply the United States and a growing activity in Portugal, which it is accelerating through acquisitions, the company dedicated to the production of elastic fabrics and clothing is turning its business around after years of losses.

After years of losses, the company placed in 2023 a new captain, César Revenga, as the new person appointed to turn the business around. “The business of the former Dogi (the name under which the giant operated until the early 2010s) is now being run in Guatemala, while in Portugal we have specialized in apparel for luxury clients,“ the executive explains to Modaes.

According to the company’s plans, the factory in Guatemala, which was only started up at the end of 2024, will reach a turnover of €75 million in two years, while in the country’s second half of the year it will have a turnover of €75 million euros. In the Portuguese country, Nextil expects to reach 30 million euros organically, and up to €50 million with the acquisition and integration of other companies in the area.

Nextil reversed last year’s losses, posting a profit of three million euros

The executive joined the company at the end of 2023 from the technology company Ezentis, and has embarked on the management of its third listed company. When Revenga arrived at Nextil, the giant had accumulated a turnover of €38.9 million and was in the red by nine million euros. In the executive’s first year, the company has already reversed its losses and posted a profit of three million euros by the end of 2024, with sales of a further €24 million.

During this time, Revenga has implemented a plan of, first, reorganization and cost reduction, and then, momentum, which should lead the company to close 2026 with a turnover of more than one hundred million. By 2025, the group also expects to close the year with sales of more than €60 million, and a gross operating profit (ebitda) of ten million.

“When I arrived at Nextil, the financial problem was obvious, but the important thing for me was to know if it was just that, a financial issue,“ the executive told Modaes. The company’s debt, which at the end of 2023 reached €60 million, was already reduced by half, at 29 million euros, at the end of last year. For this fiscal year, as of June, Nextil’s liabilities are already below €20 million.

This year, Nextil’s liabilities have already been reduced to below €20 million

“We began to implement a common sense strategy: not to spend more than we had, to put aside those businesses that did not work, to promote those that did, and to raise money for new investments,“ Revenga continues.

The first step, therefore, was to get rid of the residual industrial business that was still operating in Spain, which was incurring annual losses of three million euros, by closing its subsidiaries in the country. At the same time, the company also cut its corporate structure expenses to €1.3 million at present, compared to the €4.4 million they would represent at the end of 2023.

Later, the group closed the factory it operated in the United States, which generated liabilities of between one and two million euros a year, and moved it to Guatemala, with a production cost six times cheaper. Now, Nextil is also about to close the purchase in the coming months of a Portuguese company, which will help it to boost its line of business in Europe.

In parallel to the reorganization, Revenga has also facilitated the injection of capital into Nextil, first to clean up the group’s liabilities, and then to invest in the growth of the business. In 2024, the company carried out a first capital increase after the arrival of the new CEO, valued at €20.7 million.

Nextil closed in 2024 a round of more than €20 million euros

Of this, 12.2 million corresponds to debt conversion with its main shareholder, Business Gate, and another eight million of “new money” from other investors. A few days ago, the company also completed a convertible bond issue valued at eight million euros.

Along with Revenga, Nextil (which employs around 370 direct employees worldwide), has also incorporated Jairo Valenciano as CFO and Arturo Llarena, from the steel company Duro Felguera, as COO.

“In a structure the size of Nextil, we felt that we did not need specialized profiles in fashion, but rather industrial experts,“ says the executive. The subsidiaries in each country, however, do have a general manager for the sector.

César Revenga is at the head of Nextil, which has mainly incorporated experts in industrial sector management.

Guatemala, a past in a new place

In the Central American country, the company started up a factory in October last year with an initial turnover capacity of €35 million. “We are closing the U.S. factory in 2023, and moving customers to Guatemala, the country where, if you are a U.S. company, it is more cost-effective for you to produce today.“

In addition to lower labor costs, the Central American country is included in the Cafta treaty, whereby trade with the United States benefits from tax exemptions and virtually zero tariffs. “After Liberation Day, it was confirmed that our nearshoring strategy had been the most appropriate,“ recalls Revenga.

At this plant, which operates under the Nextil Elastic Fabrics company, the company carries out the production of elastic fabric, Nextil’s traditional business. The group’s plans, however, are to increase the factory’s turnover capacity to 75 million euros by 2026.

In Guatemala, Nextil produces elastic fabric, the company’s traditional business.

To this end, Nextil negotiated the sale of a 25% stake in the company to a local partner, in a transaction valued at US$7.5 million. This, together with an injection of another US$2.5 million from the parent company, adds up to an investment of US$10 million to increase the capacity of the business.

“Our main competitor is not in Europe or the United States, but in Asia -explains the manager- there, production costs are cheaper, but the increase in tariffs on China, together with a supply chain that is further away and exposed to external risks, make Guatemala an increasingly attractive country for U.S. customers.“ “A displacement of the U.S. market to the country, however small, is already a lot, we are talking about the largest market in the world.“

Portugal, the cradle of luxury

Nextil’s other line of business is currently concentrated in Portugal. There, under the company Sici93, the group operates a network of five garment plants that supply the European luxury sector. The company’s Portuguese business, says the executive, was the only one that was profitable when he joined the company, but profits were diluted in the rest of the more loss-making activities. “When I arrived, the parent company owed the Portuguese business up to €20 million ,“ Ravenga recounts.

To boost business in the territory, the manager admits, is more complex than in Guatemala. “The way to consolidate the business is to win customers, but companies in the luxury sector do not change suppliers for a cost margin above or below 2%,“ he explains.

In this context, the company has launched a plan to buy competing companies and thus expand its customer base. The first acquisition is already underway, and Ravenga expects it to close in the next three to four months, which will boost Nextil’s turnover in Portugal.

If the group had a turnover of around €21 million in the country by 2024, the figure will already exceed €25 million by the end of this year. By 2026, moreover, the company’s plans call for organic growth that will bring turnover to between 28 and 30 million euros, and up to 50 million euros thanks also to inorganic growth.

A new sustainable project

Nextil’s latest venture is in the sustainable niche, specifically with the marketing of Greendyes, a natural sustainable dye. Although this line of business is not yet included in the company’s growth plans for 2026, Revenga expects this business to be consolidated in the coming years, as a first bet of the company in the sustainable segment.

To this end, the group has teamed up with a U.S. partner, Jaime Muriel, whom it will help in the launch of a new brand: Goji. Together with the entrepreneur, with whom the Spanish company already works as a supplier of technical fabrics for healthcare, Nextil will carry out the complete production of the catalog, “This agreement will allow us to implement the entire Nextil vertical process,“ explains the executive.

To manufacture the garments, the group will also use Greendyes, which it has developed in a laboratory located in Madrid. The brand was initially designed to dress pickleball players, a popular sport in the United States, with the aim of eventually expanding to the masses. “In a similar way to what has happened with Lululemon or Alo Yoga,“ explains Revenga.