The owner of Vileda reduces sales, but maintains investments and donates 290,000 masks

Freudenberg is a German group that operates in multiple industrial sectors and owns the popular brand of mops and cloths Vileda. Its headquarters in the Spanish market are located in Parets del Vallès (Barcelona), at the foot of the C-17, and surely drivers who regularly travel on this road have read the sign "non-woven fabrics," the company's great specialty, a thousand times when passing in front of the factory. The multinational also has facilities in Martorell, Burgos, Navarra, and Madrid, dependent on up to seven subsidiaries that employ a workforce of 1,070 workers and, together, have invoiced 275 million euros during 2020.

This figure is 11.8% lower than the 312 million euros earned in 2019 as a result of the decrease in sales recorded by the products it manufactures for the automotive, fashion, and hospitality sectors. On the contrary, in this year of pandemic, Freudenberg has seen an increase in sales of its cleaning products division, as explained by Jaume Cané, the group's director in Spain. "Despite the drop in income, we have maintained investments of almost 7 million euros, which represents a clear commitment to the factories we have in this country and to improving their technology," highlights the executive.

Cané also emphasizes the donations made by the company to help administrations face the COVID-19 crisis. Thus, Freudenberg has donated 280,000 disposable gloves and 290,000 masks from its factories to the Generalitat, the Parets del Vallès City Council, and other institutions and charities. In parallel, 65,000 euros have been donated to the Food Bank. "Our results may go down, but not our values," says Cané.

Freudenberg was founded 170 years ago in the German city of Weinheim and develops technical products with thousands of industrial applications, such as sealing material, vibration control components, technical textiles, filters, and chemical, cleaning, and medical products. Overall, the multinational invoiced 8.840 billion in 2020, 6% less.