Coltejer Shuts Down Completely

Medellin-based textile giant Coltejer revealed in a September 9 filing with Colombia’s Superfinanciera oversight agency that it has decided to shutter all operations for what remains of 2021 — and hinted of even more drastic, permanent measures coming.

“The suspension of productive activities will continue for the rest of this year 2021,” according to Coltejer.

“To date, the management team is analyzing some strategic issues that would allow it to reactivate some operations during the year 2022, among which we can highlight the following:

“a. The sale of fixed assets and product inventory.
“b. Real estate rental offer.
“c. Analysis of marketing strategies regarding the industry, clients, competitors and other market variables, which allows us to determine the relationship between the supply and the demand for textile products according to the capacity of the company.”

The Superfinanciera filing concludes with this ominous-sounding note about the company’s future: “We thank our suppliers, employees and other collaborators for all the support that they have given us.”

Coltejer and other major textile suppliers in Colombia have been suffering huge losses due to below-cost and contraband textile imports mainly from China and elsewhere.

The company racked up more red ink in second-quarter 2021 (see Medellin Herald 08/18/2021), shut down its non-woven fibers production in July (see Medellin Herald 07/16/2021) and announced closure of its historic, foundational factory in Itagüí last December (see Medellin Herald 12/18/2020).