About us

Cooperative Galatea-Varna

is an apparel production company situated in the city of Varna, Bulgaria, Eastern Europe.

The company has its own factory and specializes in the manufacture of ladies, men’s and children’s ready-to-wear garments in classic and sports style, and it mainly produces on CM and CMT basis, exporting to fashion brands, designing companies, clothing retailers and wholesalers from the European Union, under long term manufacturing contracts and subcontracting agreements.

The production is mainly exported to Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, UK and Italy, and the assortment produced includes coats, jackets, blazers, suits, dresses, trousers, skirts, etc. of woven fabric.

Also, there has been kept the tradition of making Bulgarian national clothes (costumes) of all ethnic regions of the country, which have lately been evoking a growing interest abroad too.

Among the services offered by the cooperative are also making of corporate and uniform wear and tailoring services.

Furthermore, the cooperative renders all kind of upholstery services (including upholstery of automobiles), services of sewing of different types of covers, tilts, awnings, parasols, as well as ones of making of banners and flags.

Company’s history

It was December the 7th, 1944.

A memorable date! It would be remembered by the first seventeen cooperative members, and by those who later said: „ Here is my machine, here is my labour – admit me too to membership!”

The very next day, the news was heard among the artisans. It moved both tailoring shops owners and their workers. In a short time, there was a large number of membership applications lodged, and at the time when the cooperative began working on the 9th of April, 1945, there was already 67 artisans from the sewing field, on the books – tailors, fur-dressers, hatters.

Soon after its establishment, the cooperative was called WPC „Obleklo”...

WPC „Obleklo” was not only the first cooperative established in the city of Varna, but also the first to initiate the production of ready-made clothes in the region.

In 1958, there was carried out the first export of ready-made garments (dresses) to the USSR.

As of 01.01.1959, the cooperative became a unifier of almost all the cooperatives in the city of Varna, and thus turned into an enterprise for rendering services to population.

In 1965, there was built the cooperative’s present administrative and production building, situated it the city centre, and in the beginning of the 90’s, after a series of mergers and divisions, the enterprise was re-registered under the Cooperatives Act as “Cooperative Galatea-Varna”, with the main activity - “tailoring services and own production”.

In 1994, in Madrid, Cooperative Galatea-Varna was distinguished with the international award “Best Brand Name of 1994”.

Today, there is 150 people employed in the cooperative, and the monthly capacity for production of ready-to-wear garments is 10000 pcs. The cooperative has good equipment at its disposal, including ordinary and special machines: welt pocket automatic machines; flatlock machines; knitting machines; embroidery machines; Ascolite button sewing machines; a CAD-CAM system for digitizing and grading of patterns, and for arranging and plotting of markers; cutting equipment; fusing presses, and steaming presses and mannequins.

The company has established relations with a number of approved suppliers of materials for the apparel industry, such as Coats, Amann, Kufner, Ina Trading (YKK) and others.

In the last few years, with the purpose of improving the production and living conditions of the people working there, on one hand, and reducing maintenance costs, on the other hand, the building of the cooperative has been substantially renovated (all with own forces and means).

The recent renovation activities carried out include:

• Complete gasification of the building;
• Complete fleet renewal;
• Set-up of a parking area with relative horizontal marking;
• Repairs of the roof and partial renewal of the facade.

The 65th anniversary of the cooperative is a good testimonial for its activity, but is at the same time a strong commitment to the cooperative members to mobilize their efforts for maintaining the cooperative’s good reputation.