A global, daring and innovative brand. These are some words that define Renova today. A 100% Portuguese brand that started its adventure in 1818 in the former premises of a writing and printing paper factory, next to the source of the river Almonda, in the town Torres Novas, where sheets of paper were made with the watermark Renova. The company, as we know it today, started in 1939, with the production of writing and packaging paper.

In 1963 it was bought by many families and never had an owner or relative in charge.

Paulo Pereira da Silva is currently at the head of the company. This trained physics engineer has been with Renova since 1984, where he started working as an engineer and moved up the ranks until he was appointed to the board of directors in 1991 and elected CEO in 1995. If we ask him what motivated him during this period, the answer comes quickly: “human relationship and people management”.

One of his biggest challenges when he reached the leadership of Renova was, as he says, “to restructure a company that was leader in Portugal and turn it in a multinational in the world, to stop looking only at Portugal, where we had some strengths and to transform this organization in a multinational, as a start-up, because in any of the countries where we were present we were very small and we were just starting”, he explains. At this time, and even today, the secret is to choose people well, give them the ability to work, develop their own creativity and allow them to feel part of the final result.

“People’s talent is what we need the most, to have very different people, who adapt well, to have an organization as fluid as possible, but with a clear structure and with a very powerful information system. Once again what happens in a start-up”, he says.

This environment is clearly there when we enter the Torres Novas factory office. At the entrance is the “nursery of ideas” located in an open-space, with a punch bag, perhaps representing the strength of the brand, an inspiring swing for new ideas, recycled furniture and adapted to the most different functions, art and design magazines and several inspiring phrases written on the walls that are there also to convey key messages. This is where all the creativity takes place, between work meetings or a mid-morning coffee break. In the president’s office is a slate board with many meanings of the word Renova, written by those who meet with him or visit the premises.

For the man who revolutionized the Renova brand, “the secret of organizations is people”.

Renova has always showed its identity and uniqueness from the beginning. “Renova before being a company was a brand”, which is “a little different from what usual companies. The idea was no longer to sell just an industrial product, it was to develop a brand” which was not very common, at the time in the Portuguese industry”, explains Paulo Pereira da Silva. He adds that: “The brand is in our DNA and all our development as a company is based on the Renova brand and only thus is it possible to create a global brand. Portugal lacks global brands that bring value to our country”.

Renovas factory near the source of the river Almonda

Production at the factory in the 50’s of the 20th century

Throughout its history, Renova has always been able to reinvent itself. For Paulo Pereira da Silva, early in the late 1950s when the company specialized in the manufacture and transformation of tissue paper, becoming the first company in Portugal to manufacture disposable paper products for home and professional use, there was a huge reinvention, which is reflected in its own name – Renova. ”

There is a very strong connection to Torres Novas, where the “parent factory” is located. This connection has to do with water and people. The paper industry needs water and the source of the Almonda River is located inside the factory.

From the 1970s onwards, all Renova’s industrial investments were made in the tissue paper area, leading the company to gradually abandon writing and printing paper.

In the 1980s, the internationalization process began, “which has been one of our greatest challenges in recent years”, says this physics engineer.

“The strategy that was followed for this internationalisation, and taking into account our small international dimension, was a growth based on the brand itself, our main asset. On the other hand, building a brand requires a lot of innovation, always being able to innovate and do new things. A brand has to reinvent itself, surprise and I think that some of the notoriety of the work we have done has a lot to do with this ability to do different things, to interfere with the consumer differently and in different parts of the globe. Developing a brand is a medium-term job.”

According to Paulo Pereira da Silva: “Renova, as a brand, is perceived differently in different markets. In Portugal, is probably seem as a historic brand”.

Currently, Renova is a European brand, with two factories in Portugal and one factory in France, present in more than 70 countries, in 20 of which in a more structured way and with well-defined strategies, which believes in the value of experience and privileges the relationship with citizens.

According to Paulo Pereira da Silva: “We still have room to grow”, and mentions China, a market where Renova recently entered with online sales and which has a big potential, Central and North America, each with a different strategy. “These are not new markets, but they are markets where we entered recently and where we have room to grow”.

Renova manufactures and markets innovative ranges of toilet paper, paper serviettes, kitchen towels or tissues, offering the world not only products, but also experiences that allow people to adopt a lifestyle both sustainable and different.

Regarding the percentage of the company’s turnover represented by exports, Paulo Pereira da Silva says that it should exceed 50%, which is not easy to quantify due to the existence of a factory in France selling products locally and exporting also to other countries and given the increasing sales volume through major international online sales channels.

Today Renova employs around 650 people and has products that meet people’s basic needs and has also more luxurious products, whose objective is no longer so much to fulfil basic needs, but may have to do much more with an experience or lifestyle, with bathroom decoration for example, like happens with luxury brands.

Photo: Fernando Piçarra

In the last decade, Renova has become a leading European brand of disposable paper products for domestic and sanitary use. It insists on its own research and technology, risking innovative products, standing out through sophisticated communication and environmental commitment.

Innovation, Pioneer, Art and Sustainability

Renova stands out given its strong innovative matrix, organizational agility and the ability to anticipate trends.

Black toilet paper, in 2005, is one of Renova’s most striking product launches. Curious by nature and eager for knowledge, it was on one of Paulo Pereira da Silva’s several trips around the world, in search of inspiration and to study the different markets that he came up with this idea. “I was in Las Vegas watching a Cirque du Soleil show, when I saw the bodies of trapeze artists wrapped in black bands. I associated this image, because for me the power of images has huge power, to a controversial Renova campaign for the French market, with bodies wrapped in white toilet paper. I thought that if the paper was black it would be more elegant and differentiating”.

After black, other colours followed, such as pink, orange, red, blue and green, products that stood out in the most prestigious stores in the world: Galeries Lafayette in Paris, Harrods in London or in the Walmart chain in Canada.

The creation of “The Sexiest WC on Earth” in Terreiro do Paço, reinventing the bathroom concept and transforming it into a full sensorial experience, with smell and touch as protagonists, was yet another example of irreverence and the will to innovate from Renova.

Renova’s association with culture and art is also part of the brand’s DNA and the company holds a strong link with artists and design, through its Art Commission program “Renova Art Commissions” (RAC), which includes graphic editions and artistic residencies linked to photography, as well as its presence in Portugal and abroad, through artistic installations using its products, celebrating creativity around the world.

Much of Renova advertising is linked to arte and a photo shoot was done with three dancers dancing on the factory grounds, a display of freedom, joy and dynamism.

“The next shows are going to be concerts in 2021. Through the movement “Portugal Takes to the Stage”, an initiative that is there to support culture, we have already commissioned three concerts for 2021”, says the CEO of Renova.

Sustainability is a constant concern in the company. “Renova’s relationship with the environment is a very old project, which started with water, with the river source inside the factory. We have been investing a lot in this theme over time, from saving energy, installing solar panels to recycling paper and even waste paper, allowing us to reintegrate them into the economy ”, explains this company’s official.

Photo: Fernando Piçarra
Source of the river Almonda

The brand has been progressively eliminating plastic from its portfolio. This project started at the end of 2018 with the launch of four references of Paper Pack Toilet Paper, followed by the launch of Paper Pack Kitchen Tissues in 2019. In 2020, this objective was reinforced and more recently in the launching of the 100% Recycled range.

Renova will continue to consolidate its process of gradually replacing plastic packaging with paper packaging, responding to a growing public expectation for alternatives to ‘eco-friendly’ products and assuming its responsibility to create alternatives aimed at reducing the plastic in everyday consumption.

In 2019, a multi-media campaign was launched in the French market, aimed at consolidating the communication of these products, which use recyclable and biodegradable paper as an alternative to plastic, reinforcing the adoption of more sustainable and environmentally friendly practices across borders.

“In addition to this, our offices are very minimalist, in old buildings readjusted with great creativity with many recycled pieces of furniture that looking more like a New York loft. This is also a tribute to the generations that have been and worked in this factory”, he adds.

An innovation case study

In 2012, a ‘case study’ was developed on Renova, highlighting the innovation of its products, processes and work methodologies. Renova achieved a very large projection and became known as the brand that broke the prejudice regarding toilet paper, changing it from a commodity into a sexy product.

Renova was considered the manufacturing brand of the best toilet paper in the world by the “New York Times”, the Spanish newspaper “El Mundo” and the French magazine “Les Echos”.

Regarding the future, at the beginning of this year, Renova will invest €40 million in Portugal, increasing the factory output, in logistics, either in automation in the factory, or in adapting sales via the internet, and in the environmental area, enhancing the circularity of resources.

As regards 2021, Renova has three wishes: to be as close to the citizens as possible, to be more present globally, in the widest possible geographical space, and to be acknowledged as the ‘premium’ brand of our industry worldwide, the hottest and sexiest brand.

Finally, we asked Paulo Pereira da Silva what the Renova brand means to him: “It is a very significant part of my life”, he concludes.