MONATEX Used Textile Buyer and Exporter, Temse, Belgium

Company overview

Monatex is a Belgian buyer and seller of used textiles at Cauwerburg 115 K in Temse, in the Waasland between Antwerp and Ghent. The company states more than 30 years in the business, processing since 1994, and more than three generations of family involvement in recycling and reselling used clothing.

Textiles that are no longer used in Europe are collected, sorted into five quality categories and shipped to customers on several continents. The company names quality, service, price and continuity as the four things it works towards.

A network that started in Central Europe

One line on the site is more revealing than the rest: the customer and supplier network was built with Central Europe as its starting point.

That is not where most Belgian sorters point. The usual gravitational pull from this part of Europe is south, towards West Africa, where summer mix and low-grade volume move in containers. A business whose roots are in Poland, Czechia, Hungary and Romania is selling a different product: those markets buy wearable shop-quality goods for resale in stores, at higher price and lower volume, and they judge a supplier on how consistent the top tier is rather than on price per kilo.

If that describes your business, the origin story is a good sign. If you are buying container volume for an African market, ask specifically what share of output goes that way now, because a company can grow into a new market and its website will be the last thing to say so.

Five categories, and what the last two mean

The product list separates wearable goods from recycling material:

• Shop quality, the top tier, for resale in retail.
• First choice quality.
• Second choice quality.
• Clothing for recycling.
• Coloured cotton and white cotton as separate recycling fractions.

The cotton split at the bottom is worth understanding even if you never buy it, because it tells you how seriously the sorting is done. White cotton and coloured cotton are separated because they are worth different money in the wiping-cloth trade. White is the premium fraction: it goes to workshops where any colour transfer onto a painted or machined surface would ruin the job, and it can be bleached and reused. Coloured cotton goes to dirtier work. A plant that bothers to pull those two apart is running a finer sort than one that bales everything unwearable together, and that discipline usually shows in the wearable tiers as well.

What the site does not publish is the defect rule for each of the three wearable tiers. The names are common in the Benelux trade but they are house terms, so ask what separates first choice from second choice in writing before you buy either. Anyone weighing several second-hand clothing suppliers will find the standard grade vocabulary useful for translating one company's names into another's, and the account of how sorting plants split their intake explains why a five-category ladder ends where it does.

You may be buying through a distributor

Monatex states that it works exclusively with recognised distributors to guarantee delivery whatever the destination country. That is a real operating model rather than a slogan, and it has consequences for a buyer.

Establish at first contact whether you would be served directly from Temse or routed through a distributor in your region, because the two are different transactions. A distributor adds a margin and a layer of communication, and in exchange takes on the customs, the delivery risk and often the credit. For a first-time buyer in a distant market that trade is frequently worth making. For an established buyer with their own freight forwarder it usually is not, so it is better to know which one is on offer before the price conversation rather than after.

Practical details

Published opening hours are Monday to Friday, 08:30 to 18:00, with the weekend closed, while the site separately promises a team available around the clock for questions from purchase to delivery. Those two statements do not quite agree, so if out-of-hours contact matters to you, confirm it rather than assume it.

Temse sits on the Scheldt roughly 25 km from the port of Antwerp, which makes both sea freight and a road run into Germany and Central Europe straightforward from the same door. Contact is [email protected], +32 475 55 58 16, +32 475 43 98 66 or +32 3 771 45 15. For a wholesale buyer working the Central and Eastern European retail market, this is a supplier whose history points the same way your business does.

Frequently asked questions

Where is Monatex based?

At Cauwerburg 115 K, 9140 Temse, Belgium, about 25 km from the port of Antwerp.

How long has the company been trading?

It states more than 30 years in the market, processing since 1994, with more than three generations of the family active in used clothing.

What product categories are sold?

Shop quality, first choice and second choice as wearable tiers, plus clothing for recycling and separate coloured cotton and white cotton recycling fractions.

Can I buy directly from the company?

It states that it works exclusively with recognised distributors to secure delivery in any destination country, so clarify at first contact whether you would be supplied directly or through a distributor.

What are the opening hours?

Monday to Friday from 08:30 to 18:00, closed at weekends, although the site also advertises a team reachable around the clock, so confirm which applies.