BARCELONA, Spain — Crevin, S.A. is one of the few mills left in Europe dedicated to upholstery and not just any upholstery because 85 percent of the line is double woven plain goods, the hallmark and pride of this company.

“Crevin is a specialist in jacquard woven plains with interesting surface effects and double woven for great strength and stability,” says Uulco Baljet, the Dutch born International Sales Manager of Crevin. “In ten years, plains will still be the best seller in this industry worldwide. We make plains which sell as a starting point to the high end manufacturer. We do not coat our fabrics with latex because they are double woven,” he adds. “Over 1,000 colors of plains are available including varieties with polyester chenille yarns. Part of our future is to make higher value products,” Baljet reasons. Uulco Baljet and Pepi Costa, the ‘Prince’ and ‘Queen’ of Plains

Europe is 70 precent of Crevin’s export business but Baljet stresses the importance of moving on to additional markets because Europe is a flat business environment today. “We invest in partnerships with the wholesaler wherever we work,” Baljet explains. We protect our wholesale distribution. This is a human to human business—not business to business.” Crevin is also a regular exhibitor at MoOD and at Proposte.

Baljet works closely with Pepi Costa, Export Manager and team coordinator and Santi Cortez, 30 year member of the Crevin export team. A fourth member of the team has just been added as Crevin seeks to expand its export business in the USA, Mexico, Japan and Korea, its newer export markets. Crevin is also selling its jacquard woven plains to accounts in India and Turkey, Baljet says.  The goal is to increase exports to 80 percent of overall sales by seeking these new markets, he says. Recently, Crevin appointed Jeff Rocque as the US agent for the furniture industry based in North Carolina.

The 75 employee mill does everything yarn forward under one roof . Like several other mills and converters, Crevin has a close working relationship with yarn spinners in Spain and Italy. It pays close attention to the development of novelty yarns for its line of jacquard plains. These  yarns are usually woven with various blends of polypropylene including cotton, polyester and more recently, a wool/polypropylene blend for contract grades with a minimum of 50,000 rubs on the Martindale for 15 Euro per meter. Some qualities are specified for as much as 100,000 on the Martindale, Baljet says. Softer versions are made with viscose, microfiber and cotton.  

Crevin offers one piece minimums in 1,000 stock dyed colors but for two piece minimum, you can have any color you want.  Many qualities start   at eight Euros per meter and go up to 13 Euros a meter, Baljet says. Crevin started life as a converter of knitted velours in 1976 and became a full fledged mill with all of the necessary equipment within ten years of formation in 1986. It has been a pioneer in the use of  propylene beginning in 2002. Jordi Dinares and Joan Perez are the second generation family owners of Crevin. The company is free of debt and financially stable according to Baljet. So while the slowdown in Europe affected company sales, Baljet says it can stay the course because of its debt free situation.

 (The owners were away on business and not available for this interview.)