Company timeline

How we got to where we are today

The history of GRANORTE is made of years of success. A steady growth based on our constant concern to innovate have made us into one of the most recognised companies in cork industry.

1972 Foundation of GRANORTE - Granulados de Cortiça do Norte de Portugal, Lda.
1975 Production of granulated cork begins.
1982 Rising of the cork agglomeration plant.
1984 GRANORTE begins producing agglomerated cork blocks and sheets.
1985 Production of cork wall and floor coverings.
1992 Company name was converted to GRANORTE - Revestimentos de Cortiça, Lda.
1992 Expansion of agglomerated cork blocks production lines.
1994 Establishment of GNLab, the industrial quality control laboratory of GRANORTE.
1999 Acquisition of the first floating floor producing line.
2000 Certification of the Quality Management System by ISO9000 Standards.
2002 UNICLIC® patent licensing.
2006 Construction of a new floating floor producing plant. Acquisition of a new fully automated floating floor producing line.
2007 Founded GRANORTE UK LTD and GRANORTE GmbH Deutschland.
2008 GRANORTE signs a worldwide exclusive agreement for the use of MICROBAN® antibacterial technology on cork products.
2010 FSC® C044061 Chain of Custody Certification.
2011 Acquisition of a new finishing line using HotCoating® PUR.
2011 Beginning of production of cork floating floors with 1.8 meters long, a worldwide innovation.
2011 Created the GRANORTEDESIGN® brand and GRANORTE DESIGN CENTER.
2012 Acquisition of a new state-of-the-art single-pass digital printer using proprietary technology.
2012 Launching of VITA collection - digitally printed cork floor coverings.
2013 GRANORTE launches “AWS”, a technology that create a wood texture on digital printed cork floors.
2013 Development and installation of the world’s first robotic solution using a last generation 7 axes anthropomorphic robot and CADCAM software to create complex and large forms from cork.
2014 Launching of NUSPA - an innovative collection of cork bath furniture.
2015 Launching of VITA DECOR collection.
2015 GRANORTE’s NUSPA collection wins GREEN GOOD DESIGN AWARD and IF DESIGN AWARD
2017 VITA DECOR is a winner of ICONIC AWARDS 2017 - Interior innovation - Best of best.
2018 Launching of the innovative KENKO® flooring collection.
2018 VITA DECOR is a winner of GERMAN DESIGN AWARD 2018.
2018 KENKO® flooring is a winner of PRÉMIOS INOVAÇÃO NA CONSTRUÇÃO 2018 and FLOORING INNOVATION AWARDS 2018.
2019 Launch of the new “TRENDcollection - floors by Granorte” brand.
2020 Launching of the innovative cork wall coverings collections WABI, MAT, TATAMI, MODULAR and GROOVY.
2020 MOON Coffee Table is Finalist for FX INTERNATIONAL INTERIOR DESIGN AWARDS and is Product Of The Year Winner of MIXOLOGY AWARDS 2020.