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The founder of El Ganso is betting on Tintoremus: “It's nice to do something to try to change things”
Clemente Cebrián embarks on a new adventure in the company of Lola López, this time in the agricultural industry through a project that combines sustainability and local employment.
He doesn't know how to stay still. Since he founded the textile company El Ganso with his brother Álvaro in 2006, Clemente Cebrián has not stopped exploring new business possibilities beyond the family company.
In 2017 he already proposed different initiatives, such as a venture builder to promote textile projects, such as Vanylu, Wearing MARTE, Lord Wilmore or Maskokotas, among others, or a hospitality and catering project, Wallmok, a project that sought to promote Good fast food, fast food that comes directly from the supplier and with the added value of explaining to the customer what they are eating and what they later converted.
The current proposal delves into the focus of social and environmental sustainability, but in a completely different sector: the agricultural industry. And it does so through a natural dye company, Tintoremus.
Tintoremus is a spin-off from El Ganso. Initially it started from El Ganso as Proyecto Índigo, but given the potential and growth it was having, in 2022 we decided to turn it into an independent company where the two of us, Lola López and I, are co-founders with four investment partners who have believed in the project,” explains Clemente Cebrián.
And Lola López, the co-founder of the project, corroborates this: “The creation of Tintoremus was really a decision that arose, unexpectedly, like the most beautiful things in life. We started a different project in El Ganso, we called it Proyecto Índigo, and the result was so good that it could not stay there, in a marketing action. At one point, we decided to continue this adventure and a spin-off was created and we decided to do it together, just as we had started this project.”
A natural dye company
But what is Tintoremus? “On the one hand, it is a company that produces natural dyes, especially indigo, which currently has 11 direct employees, cultivates 100,000 m2 of indigo in Extremadura and has a 3,000 m2 pigment extraction centre in Santa María de las Lomas (Cáceres) where the entire fermentation, oxygenation, extraction, drying and grinding process takes place. And, on the other hand, it markets these natural dyes through the creation of its own denim and garment dyeing brand, The Sttudio by Tintoremus, and through the creation of dyeing events and experiences at the point of sale, collaborations with third-party brands of recognised prestige and the sale of said pigment to artisans, artists…”, they explain.
Reusing tobacco-growing land
The idea for the project came about on the way back from a trip to Jarandilla de la Vera (Cáceres) after a photo shoot for El Ganso. “When we passed through Talayuela (Cáceres), we saw that there were many plots of land that were previously used for tobacco cultivation and that were now unexploited. Relating this to what an entrepreneur had done in the United States, we saw the opportunity to grow indigo (which grows in conditions similar to tobacco) and, thus, be a substitute for tobacco crops, creating value in the Spanish countryside. Added to this is the fact that fashion is in a process of change and transformation towards a much more sustainable model. Being able to create a company based on the cultivation, extraction and sale of natural dyes, especially indigo, seemed not only appropriate but also necessary,” they explain.
The question is inevitable: why does someone like Clemente Cebrián get so involved in a project like this? “As well as being very attracted to the possibility of creating new projects, being able to unite the textile sector and the rural world by supporting both is very important. It is a project that combines the countryside, fashion, technology, R&D, which has a lot of potential and where I have been lucky enough to be able to count on a team, partners and, especially, Lola, who have believed in it. It is nice to do something to create value, to try to change things.”
For Lola López, the objective is to help, to contribute our grain of sand. We also wanted to reach that part of sustainability that generates value, the real one. In my case, it is a project that arises at the perfect time, with a desire to do something different, authentic and my own. It is a project that unites two sectors that need each other, textiles and agriculture, with a social part in which we can help, create value and create excitement again in a client who asks for this type of project.”
Today, Tintoremus “has gone from an innovative project, with a lot of R&D behind it, to a semi-industrialized process in the natural dyes part. With a lot of learning and mistakes behind it. It is true that working with the times of the field, has made us develop patience, the virtue of listening to silence, which helps reflection and other values that retail has not accustomed us to. They are two completely different worlds,” they explain.
And a brand: The Sttudio by Tintoremus
Regarding the brand part, The Sttudio by Tintoremus, which will soon see the light, “its evolution has been total, it is a totally new brand on the market, with a different concept, with a line of jeans where we introduce natural indigo and another where what we do is wash everything with natural dyes, giving prominence to the color. Its evolution has been total by creating a brand from scratch. It is a very ambitious project where we connect an industrial part and a pure retail part with the textile brand.”
Their medium-term goal is “on the one hand, to industrialize the natural dye market and, on the other, to find a conscious customer who supports and shares with brands with this type of values, creating a community with all of them and with big brands, because what we want is to share everything – the know-how, the dyes – and put them at the service of other companies, to create a true concept of natural dyes and show that it is possible.”
A challenge that, although “it is nice, is still complex. In the end we have to satisfy a more industrial client and another who likes the project, but also the product and service, which in the end is what we are going to sell,” they conclude.
Source: "Emprendedores" Magazine (Isabel García Méndez) 11/16/2024
Link to the original article: https://emprendedores.es/casos-de-exito/fundador-el-ganso-apuesta-tintoremus/
