Almost a century making stoppers

We are talking about practically 100 years of history manufacturing stoppers. A long and full history of success, which, even before the middle of the 20th century, was already exploring the foreign market. With two factories, one of which in Montemor-o-Novo, they employ more than a hundred workers and export almost all of its production. Despite the breakdown caused by the pandemic, Relvas Cork continues to invest in order to improve product performance

During the well-lived twenties of the last century, Américo Coelho Relvas gave birth to a company - and lent it his name - for the production of small cork stoppers.

The main customers were wine producers. But stoppers were also widely used to "close" traditional bottles of pharmaceutical liquids, which we still often see in pharmacy decorations.

The business flourished, the quality of the product gained market and, a few years later, the first champagne corks were born, made in two or four pieces of natural cork.

It was not long before their fame crossed borders, and Relvas corks entered the restricted - at the time - export market, in a particularly difficult period for Europe, in times of war.

In the sixties, methods evolved towards processing cork into discs, with its waste becoming usable agglomerates. Later, in the very midst of the Carnation Revolution, there was some uncertainty about the future of business, but everything went well and the unit went back to manufacture at a normal pace.

"The adventure in Alentejo, in Cortiçada do Lavre (Montemor-o-Novo) begins in 1997, with the aim of being closer to the raw material and better controlling the quality and traceability of our stoppers and, consequently, to increase production ", revealed João Xarepe, administrator of that unit, in a conversation with Mais Alentejo. At that time, a heat transfer system by thermo-fluid was created using cork powder as biomass, and there was also investment in a high performance cooking system with significant impacts on the sensory quality of the product.

"In Cortiçadas de Lavre, we have three production sectors, which includes the preparation of cork, discs and granules", he explained, clarifying that the company produces "two types of stoppers, the microgranulate ones and technical stoppers with two natural cork discs ".

For processing cork, Relvas uses and develops state-of-the-art technology, which allows "to select the best granules and discs and to prepare the stoppers that will be in contact with champagne".

"Some of the determining aspects are the patented cooking system that contributes to improving the organoleptic characteristics of our product, the individual moulding technology for the formation of the cork body and the state-of-the-art artificial vision systems for the selection", the company also revealed

The purchase of the raw material is made in the two Iberian countries, the Portuguese part being divided between the regions of Alentejo, Ribatejo and Algarve. And what makes them different from your competitors? "The high quality of our cork, mainly visually and organoleptically," stated João Xarepe.

In order to keep up with growing demand from the markets, Relvas continues to invest in the production area in order to continuously improve their product's performance. With two industrial units, Cortiçada do Lavre and a second one in Mozelos, Santa Maria da Feira, 99.9 percent of its production is destined for export, with "France, Italy, the USA and Brazil as the main markets ".

They currently employ 115 workers, presenting a "turnover of around 24 million euros", revealed the administrator, admitting, also, that they had a "strong break" motivated by the pandemic and the limitations that it caused "in the restoration, weddings, baptisms, parties, congresses and breaks in tourism ".

For the future, the company ensures "investments that guarantee increased production and quality control" of the product that they place on an extremely demanding world market.

The company guarantees that it lives "every day from ideas, decisions, work and fruit carried out, not only by the Relvas family, but by all employees and friends, and that today, almost 100 years old, though we position ourselves in a market with rigour and traditions, we look to the future with ambition ".