Altifibers is an textile Bolivian company specialized en camelids. The most important products are yarns and tops from dehaired llama (LlamaSoft), alpaca and sheep.
Bolivia is a major producer of llama and alpaca fibers in the world, commanding the number one and number two positions in these fibers respectively.
HISTORY
From its inception in January 1990, Altifibers has been committed to the needs of the textile industry by harnessing our expertise on the natural fibers originating from llama and alpaca animals, resulting in significant added value of these fibers through the manufacturing of distinctive, warm, soft and beautifully colored garments.
Altifibers started by commercializing llama and alpaca tops, originally processed in Europe. These were well received by the European textile companies, who considered that the tops were of a quality suitable for their markets. However, the high costs of transportation and processing reduced the price competitiveness of the product and thus limiting the development of the European market. Therefore, it was decided to industrialize the product in Bolivia, thereby taking advantage of considerably lower processing costs.
• In 1995, Altifibers acquired and installed a plant for the production of tops (combed fibers) on an industrial scale in La Paz, Bolivia. In 2002 the company acquired a second combing line increasing the total production to 840,000 kg per year.
This investment permitted Altifibers to consolidate its position in the market place and to expand into other markets, thus actively participating in the world market of tops of llama, alpaca fibers and sheep wool.
• During 1996, a series of tests were made to improve the selection of the llama fibers to achieve improved quality. These tests showed that the separation between coarse and finer hairs substantially improved the product.
Approximately 200 workers were employed in manually removing the coarse fibers (manual dehairing). Through months of training and operating experience, it was realized that although the fibers obtained were of a higher quality, these did not reach the standard of quality required by the demanding international textile market.
• At the beginning of 1997, it was decided to incorporate technology (then untried for this type of product) to dehair the llama fibers by mechanical means. This pioneering endeavor resulted in an investment to acquire five dehairing production lines. Highly qualified European technicians dedicated a great deal of time to this end. As a result of this new approach the dehaired llama fibers produced complied with all the quality requirements of our international markets.
Due to this situation, it was decided to expand the production lines with equipment manufactured in England, thus initiating the only mechanized process for the dehairing of llama fibers in the world, placing Altifibers at the forefront of natural fibres dehairing processes in the world. Currently, the production capacity for dehaired products in different qualities is 240,000 kg per year.
Having acquired this niche and excellent experience in this area of the textile international arena, new business opportunities were developed enabling several projects.
• In the 2000s decade, Altifibers created a conglomerate of four subsidiaries. Three are dedicated specifically to the textile industrial process area and the other one to the sales of garments.
Additionally, during the same period of time, the company started to develop its own technologies for the dehaired process. The work has changed from simply modifying and adapting to fully assemble the machines.
Those milestones has boosted the company’s products to reach higher quality levels in international markets.
• By 2010, Altifibers refined its role in the conglomerate, focusing in the entire industrial process of yarns and tops.
• In 2012, the company builds another manufacture plant and the growing produced and exported between 30 and 40 tons monthly.
INFRAESTRUCTURE
Altifibers owns a property of 25,000 square meters, of which 12,000 square meters are covered construction. Located in the City of El Alto at an elevation of 4,100 meters ( 12,360 ft ) above sea level. This is the place were all the phases of our production processes reside.
Through strict quality and cost controls the raw materials and the production chains are harmoniously integrated to guarantee the demanding standards of the international textile markets.