Weavable team grows

Weavabel has expanded its care labels team with three new hires in Portugal and China. The team has doubled in size in a year, from four people in 2025 to eight in 2026, as demand for compliant care labels accelerates.

Weavabel produced 3.6 million care labels in Q2 2026, up from around 900,000 in Q2 2025, an increase of 300 percent. Care labels is now Weavabel's fastest-growing department, with annual care label volumes on track to roughly double in the next two years.

The new team members are Leyla Liu, Joao Melo and Jorge Miguel. Liu is variable data account manager, China, a role in which she gives brands and garment factories local customer support in the region. Melo is variable data production manager, Portugal. He is Weavabel’s first care label production worker, marking the first time the company has produced labels in-house from its base in Portugal. Miguel is variable data production specialist, Portugal. He works alongside Melo, taking in-house production in Portugal from one person to a full-time team of two.

This growth is being driven by regulation. As EU rules multiply, brands selling into Europe, wherever they are based, need every label across their supply chain to be consistent and compliant. Rather than leaving garment factories to source their own labels, brands are asking garment factories to order through Weavabel, so that the brand approves every label and keeps full visibility of what goes on their garments.

The EU's Digital Product Passport (DPP) requirements are adding to that demand. Brands increasingly use the care label to carry a QR code or RFID tag linking to the garment's digital record, covering where it was made, what it is made from and how to care for, repair and recycle it. Care instructions themselves must still appear on the physical label.

'A care label can look like the simplest thing on a garment, but there's a lot going on behind it,' said Laetitia Surtees, variable data operations manager at Weavabel. 'With regulations multiplying, brands want one place to design, approve and order labels that are compliant everywhere they sell. Growing the team and bringing production in-house in Portugal means Weavabel can give every brand a fast, personal service as volumes keep climbing. The care label is fast becoming a garment's permanent ID card, and brands are treating it that way.'

Travis Stutterheim, variable data manager, Weavabel, added: 'The biggest misconception about care labels is that they're simple. Behind every one is artwork, translations, approval and production that has to be right first time. Our portal takes that complexity away, and with Digital Product Passports the care label is becoming the obvious place to connect a garment to its digital record.'

To reflect the increase in demand, Weavabel has launched an online portal where brands create, approve and order label artwork, backed by a managed translation database. The company added printers, increasing production capacity by 50 percent in Europe. It extended its production partner network across Bangladesh, Vietnam and Turkey, and integrated with DPP partners Bombiix and osapiens. It split the department into technical and systems, led by Travis Stutterheim, and
operations, led by Laetitia Surtees.

Philip Fulcher, global head of operations, said: 'Care labels is now the fastest-growing part of Weavabel, and that tells you where the fashion industry is heading. Compliance is no longer something brands can leave to individual factories. By doubling the team, adding
capacity in Europe and producing garment labels in-house in Portugal for the first time, we're making sure brands can centralize their care labels with us and stay compliant as the rules change.'

Over the next 24 months, Weavabel aims to double the number of brands onboarded for care label supply. It is also developing an AI-driven platform that will give customers live order tracking.