The insolvency was requested by Banco Comercial Português (BCP), one of the largest creditors.
The Lisbon West District Court, based in Sintra, appointed Jorge Calvete as insolvency administrator and scheduled a creditors’ meeting for 4 March.
Contacted by the Lusa news agency, the insolvency administrator said that “Sicasal’s production is at a standstill, but there is an intention to present a recovery plan to reactivate it and there is every interest in not closing the unit”.
Jorge Calvete confirmed that there are “several interested investors” in the company.
The Social Security Institute clarified to Lusa that the company had 315 employees at the end of 2024 and ended 2025 with 260.
At the end of the summer, the industrial unit stopped production and, in October, moved forward with a Special Revitalisation Process (PER) to negotiate a recovery plan with creditors.
However, the newspaper explains, the PER was rejected by the court because the company repeatedly failed to submit documents.
Sicasal was founded in 1968 by its current administrator Álvaro Santos Silva.
In 2011, a fire destroyed part of the production area, but the company managed to rise from the ashes and secure the jobs of the 700 workers it had at the time.
In the two years following the fire, it invested around €15 million, not only in restoring the burned area, but also in expanding it.