What would be an inconvenience for most places was an economic hardship for Pelileo, because its main industry is manufacturing denim clothing. At that time, most of the modest workshops and small factories made buttonholes by cutting small slits in the trousers, a crude technique that condemned their products to a short life before they started fraying. Only one medium-sized maker owned a buttonhole sewing machine, and he was not about to help his competitors by sewing buttonholes for other firms. His plan was to introduce sorely needed technology into Pelileo's textile industry. It charged jean makers 10 cents a buttonhole and disseminated information about the real cost and the source of this technology.
Today there are about half a dozen similar machines in the town.
The cost of making a buttonhole has dropped, garment quality has improved, and so have the prices fetched by Pelileo's products. Soon realizing that the buttonhole business could not remain profitable for long, insotec moved into new activities, such as embroidery work and bulk purchasing of raw materials, and plans to move into new areas, such as stone washing of fabric. It also has organized business missions to cities in neighboring Colombia so that local manufacturers can see how more modern factories are run.