Georgian fashion house, Materia, which currently unites three Georgian designers: Lika Chitaia, Tiko Paksashvili and Aleksandre Akhalkatsishvili and owns two premium lines: Matériel and Dots has opened a new textile factory in Tbilisi.

The company borrowed 1.2 million GEL in a business loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to manage the business and open the new factory. The factory is of European standards and currently employs 250 people.

The new factory was opened on February 3 by the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Giorgi Gakharia.

The Minister said that it’s a very good example of a successful business. They will be supporting such factories in the frame of the state-led program ’Produce in Georgia’. The consumer goods industry is a field in which additional jobs can be created very rapidly.

He then thanked the EBRD for its active involvement in the development of factories in Georgia and said that it is very important that Georgian production is being exported abroad.

The Minister at the opening ceremony said that Materia has a strong and diversified business.

The Matériel brand is exported to 10 countries: Switzerland, Australia, South Korea, Russia, Italy, China, Armenia, Kuwait, and Ukraine.

Fashion House Materia also makes uniforms for the Georgian army, police and border police, for the municipal cleaning service, Post Office staff and even for the Georgian National Rugby Team.

Matériel shops are located in Tbilisi on Kote Abkhazi Street and Hotel Hilton Batumi. A Materiel shop will soon be opened in New York, USA.