Exciting news is buzzing around SKYPRO as we earned the recognition from three esteemed Portuguese publications: Diário de Notícias, Jornal de Notícias, and Dinheiro Vivo.
This month, SKYPRO was featured in three important Portuguese media vehicles: Diário de Notícias, Jornal de Notícias e Dinheiro Vivo. In the article, the journalist Ilídia Pinto not only explores our new Uniform Reuse Program, but also traces SKYPRO’s soaring growth, detailing our ascent within the Uniform Industry, driven by an meteoric market development, tech innovation and sustainability.
These are the main highlights of the article:
- SKYPRO’s reach into new markets beyond aviation: the company now serves other industries, including clients like Mystic Cruises, the Swedish police, and major retailers.
- The pioneering Uniform Reuse Service, which saves up to 60% per garment.
- The innovative mySKYPRO Uniform Management System, which minimizes inventory waste by using an AI predictive algorithm.
- SKYPRO’s global expansion, with soon-to-be new offices in France and Germany, besides the current locations in Portugal, UAE and US.
Want to dive deeper? Check out the original Portuguese text here, or the English version right below!
SKYPRO wants to earn 100 million in 2026 thanks to the Reuse of Uniforms
Clothing and footwear: The company was born in aviation, supplying TAP, but is committed to diversification and now dresses employees of Mystic Cruises and the Swedish police. With offices in Dubai and the USA, it plans to open in France and Germany this year. To grow, it hopes to attract 7 to 9 million investors.
SKYPRO, a Portuguese company specializing in Uniforms, is launching a new service for reusing parts, which promises customers savings of up to 60% per item. A commitment to circularity that provides a third way, in addition to the “typical approach prevalent in the clothing industry of recycling or discarding”, allowing the reuse of clothing, with “significant environmental gains, given the 90% reduction in the carbon footprint”. The expectation is that, from 2026, all the pieces we sell will comply with this circularity model. “Each uniform sold will be a uniform collected for re-use or recycling”, says Jorge Pinto, CEO of the company.
SKYPRO was born, as the name suggests, as a supplier to the aviation industry, initially through footwear. Jorge Pinto was, for years, one of the franchisees of Aerosoles in Portugal, a brand with which he developed, in 2008, in partnership with the Centro Tecnológico do Calçado, the “Aerosoles PRO”, the “first shoe in the world” for aviation, that not only “doesn’t ring metal detectors at airports, but you can fly in the morning to Dubai and in the afternoon to Moscow, and the temperature is controlled with leathers prepared for durability with an impeccable appearance”.
The success of it was such that, he guarantees, “today, if you walk through Doha airport [capital of Qatar], there is no one, from the planes to the stores, who doesn’t wear shoes made in Portugal”. TAAG, the Angolan airlines, and the Portuguese TAP were among the first to wear these shoes, but the bankruptcy of Aerosoles created the need to find an alternative supplier, giving rise to the SKYPRO brand. And if they already wore them, why not wear them too? And, in 2017, with the help of Citeve, the clothing project was developed.
In 2020, it was included by the Financial Times in the list of the thousand fastest growing companies in Europe. And if the pandemic years were not the easiest, the recovery of tourism and aviation led the company to reach “several milestones” in 2023, with record sales of 9 million euros, while tripling its workforce.
Today there are 30, but the strategic plan designed predicts that this number will more than double, by 2026, the year in which it expects to have 70 people and earn 100 million euros, in pursuit of gaining new customers, but also diversifying areas of business. “Until the pandemic we had all our eggs [in the basket] in aviation, we wanted to be the Nike of aviation professionals. Afterwards, it was strategically decided to open up to other sectors”, says Jorge Pinto. Today, it already supplies uniforms for the Swedish police, cruise companies, such as Virgin Voyages or Mistic Cruises, and some hotel chains, but it wants to reach other areas, such as large retailers, the railway industry, or museums. The target, “ideally”, is companies with over a thousand workers.
An important milestone in SKYPRO’s history was the development, in 2018, of the mySKYPRO Uniform Management System, which, “through a unique algorithm, helps companies manage their uniform inventories, aligned with demand and without waste”. With which, guarantees Jorge Pinto, they ensure savings that, in many cases, reach more than 30% per year: “Companies, as a rule, buy unacceptable quantities of uniforms that they do not need. With our system, they know when and what to buy. It knows the demand curve and the times of the value chain, and indicates when and in what quantities they should buy”.
In 2022, and committed to being “the most competent company in the world managing uniforms in terms of innovation and sustainability”, Skypro created a specific department for the area, which is led by Ricardo Silva. The following year the uniform recovery program was launched. “The first approach is always to enable the reuse of parts, according to acceptance criteria defined by the customer. Non-conforming parts are sent for recycling, which will give rise to new yarns that will be reintroduced into the manufacturing process; those that comply are repaired, if necessary, and properly sanitized, through an innovative and ecological process”, explains the Sustainability Director.
The program has been presented and the expectation is that, this year, three large aviation groups will join it. Over time, he believes, “they will all end up joining programs of this type, because they are all committed to the zero emissions goal, and uniforms will be a critical part of getting there”, he argues. To “give confidence and credibility” to customers, SKYPRO is preparing to be “the first SME in footwear and one of the first in textiles” to publish, in May, an environmental, social and corporate sustainability report, the so-called ESG .
Also this year, probably in the second four months, Skypro will enter its second round of capital raising, which aims to provide the company with the “necessary robustness to continue to grow significantly”. In the first round, in 2016, it raised three million euros, through the Revitalize Norte Fund, this year, it hopes to raise seven to nine million euros.
Headquartered in Ermesinde (Valongo), SKYPRO has offices in Dubai, to respond to the many clients it has in the region, such as Air Arabia, flydubai, Qatar Airways and the most recent reinforcement, Emirates, and in the USA, although this activity has been suspended since the pandemic. Still in 2024, the objective is to open representations in France and Germany. “We want to be very close to the markets”, says Jorge Pinto, explaining that the company ensures all creation and development of products, but subcontracts production in Portugal, but also in Morocco, India or China, designing the value chains “due to customs barriers and environmental footprint”.
“We are always happy to favor national production up to the price limit that allows us to win the business”, maintains the businessman. On the other hand, and because, from 2025, the company will “not only measure its environmental footprint with great rigor, as it will bill customers for the clothing and service it provides, but also the environmental footprint of everything it delivers ”, Jorge Pinto believes that this will create space for more products to be manufactured in Portugal.
