The Igualada firm Punto Blanco likes to define itself as a specialist in products that “touch the skin.” In 2023 he has reached 75 years of life. Its history begins in 1948, when the brothers Pere and Manuel Valls, descendants of a lineage with a strong textile tradition, created Industrias Valls, which began to manufacture the famous Punto Blanco socks. That’s where they started and in that garment, which represents 60% of the company, they are world leaders, but they also produce underwear, homewear pajamas and swimsuits. The Valls Business Corporation consists of five companies: Punto Blanco, Cóndor and Defiber (textiles) and Grafopack and Novograf (graphic arts).
75 years are a long time, and among other circumstances the company has had to face China’s entry into the WTO in 2005, which meant a large entry of low-cost products; also to the economic crisis of 2008, and more recently to covid, events that have forced it to reinvent itself. After a complicated five years, the family holding company returned to profits in 2022, a year that closed with consolidated sales of 93 million, 19% more than in 2021 (data for 2023 have not been published).
They have 25 stores in Spain (both owned and franchised) and 3,000 multi-brand clients around the world, and they export around 10%. Two aspects mark its process of constant reinvention, the continued investment in technology and research with new tissues and the incorporation of microcapsules into the thread to be able to provide medical treatments for specific pathologies. “Although the sock seems like a minor piece, it is very important, we all know that if our feet hurt we are lost; Our R&D department is focused on the development of new products that improve the quality of life of users and provide them with differential value,” says Josep Ignasi Reixach, general director of Punto Blanco.
Among other products, they offer an anti-allergic sock, 100% mercerized cotton and without elastomer, which is used to attach it to the leg, but can cause allergies; the Medic, ribbed and cuffless to promote blood circulation; the Special Width, 25% wider for people with leg pressure problems; and for those who suffer from diabetic foot there is also a specific sock, made with very high quality cotton.
Punto Blanco is committed to kilometer 0 production, and has been manufacturing its socks in Igualada for 75 years. Almost all of its workers live within a five or ten minute walk of the factory. “Thanks to this, when the world stopped due to Covid and international transport was not available, we were able to serve our clients,” Reixach says proudly.
