The Former Tupperware Factory in Constância Is Sold for 4 Million Euros to a Leiria District Cutlery Maker, Leaving Former Workers About Half of What They Are Owed
The Montalvo plant went for 40 percent of its 10 million euro asking price after a failed auction. The buyer, a cutlery firm from the Leiria district, has not said what it plans; about 192 former workers expect to recover 40 to 50 percent of their claims.
The former Tupperware factory in Montalvo, in the municipality of Constância (Santarém district), has been sold for 4 million euros, 40 percent of the 10 million euro price it was first offered at. The mayor of Constância, Sérgio Oliveira, announced the sale at the council's executive meeting on Thursday 29 October, Lusa reported via Observador. The insolvency administrator, Jorge Calvete, confirmed the price to the agency.
The buyer has not been named. The mayor said it is a cutlery company with industrial operations in the Leiria district, and that its plans for the site are not known.
How the price was reached
The sale follows the failed auction on 14 October that the Brief reported at the time. Run by the auctioneer Avalibérica, it opened with the whole plant at a base price of 10 million euros. The best bid was 3.8 million euros, and the creditors' committee (comissão de credores, the body that represents creditors in an insolvency) turned it down, according to Lusa. Separate offers of 2.5 million euros for the buildings and 1.2 million euros for the machinery were also refused, and a lot-by-lot sale was halted when bids came in at about 25 percent of the base prices.
Calvete said then that buyers were put off by the age and lower energy efficiency of the equipment, and that EU support for new investment made new machinery more attractive than used. He also noted that the committee is made up mostly of workers' representatives.
After the auction, the 3.8 million euro offer was renegotiated. Rui Caseiro, a former employee with 30 years at the plant who followed the insolvency, told Lusa that the workers were consulted again and the buyer was asked for another 200,000 euros, which it accepted. "Better to receive this amount and have something than to wait longer and receive nothing," he said, explaining that workers feared further delay would erode the value of the assets.
What former workers can expect
The estimates of how much of their claims the former staff will recover differ slightly. The mayor put it at 40 to 45 percent on average; Calvete told Lusa the sale would cover about 50 percent of the workers' credits. Caseiro estimated that about 192 former employees still have money owed to them. João Céu, a CDU councillor, warned that payment could still take time, Notícias ao Minuto reported. Fernando Guedes, a Chega councillor who also worked at the factory for 30 years, called the price insufficient but welcomed the fact that workers would recover part of what they are owed.
Our earlier report set out what the workers are owed and how much the state Wage Guarantee Fund (Fundo de Garantia Salarial) had already advanced. No date for payment has been given.
Jobs and the council's next step
The plant once employed about 260 people. It stopped producing in January 2025, and the company, Tupperware Indústria Lusitana de Artigos Domésticos, was declared insolvent the following month after the brand's production and sales licences in Portugal were withdrawn. Many of those dismissed had 20 or 30 years of service, the mayor said, calling the closure "painful" for them.
Oliveira said he hopes the new owner will restart industrial activity and create jobs, and that the council will contact the buyer in the coming weeks if the company does not get in touch first. "It is important for us to understand what the idea is, what they want to do there," he said. Constância council had published no statement on its website by Friday morning.
