Wednesday, 24 February 2010 08:16
Extrusionados Galicia, SA. - Extrugasa
PRESIDENT: Andres Quinta
OPERATIONS: Aluminium Industry
ESTABLISHED: 1984
EMPLOYEES: 550
REVENUE: 95 mln. Euro
www.extrugasa.com
Extrusionasionados Galicia S.A. is more widely known as Extrugasa – one of the leaders on the Spanish market in manufacturing aluminum profiles and is located some 20 km south from Santiago de Compostela, in Valga, Pontevedra. The company’s struggle to stay in touch with state-of-the-art technologies is what singles out its activity on the global arena.
Written by Łukasz Światowiec
The origins of Extrugasa
Extrugasa is a part of Group Quinta – a group of family owned companies dedicated to manufacturing of aluminum since the sixties when Andres Quinta founded his own window profile factory. In mid-seventies he transformed it into an anodizing plant for aluminum profiles. After years of gaining experience in trading said profiles for other companies, he decided that his know-how matched with the market’s demand for this particular surface finishing is enough to start a small factory. More than 40 years of the firm’s history proves that he was right. The anodizing plant was soon followed by a painting line and, shortly after, by an extrusion line, thus completing a complete cycle of production and processing aluminum in 1984.
The development and current state
Spanish accession to the EU was a major boost of opportunities for Extrugasa. The ability to freely penetrate the European markets was a great chance to increase the sales and continue to grow. The company’s presence on these greatly demanding European markets was matched by its need to develop new lines of business such as the thermal assembly of the profiles, woodgrain finishes or the mechanization of the profiles. The company has come a long way since it’s beginnings in the seventies, currently having built 5 extrusion presses, 5 painting lines, both horizontal and vertical, 3 anodizing lines, 4 polyamide assembly lines and many more – to satisfy the most sophisticated needs of its customers. The production capacity of the firm has reached an astounding 30 000 tonnes of aluminum profiles, while paying the closest attention to quality.
At Extrugasa, the people matter
Extrugasa’s CEO’s were always dedicated to a policy of reinvesting the benefits to acquire the best staff available on the market and modern technology. Indeed, the firm has generated almost 400 jobs over the last 12 years. The payroll is now close to 500 and is predicted to continue to grow. These people has been given optimal conditions to develop including a variety of training courses to ensure that the investment in human capital does not go to waste. Along with the best equipment the company’s final products are these of the highest standards. This is proven by various certificates granted to Extrugasa. Its anodise finishes are certificated with the EURAS/EWWA quality label. The powder coat finishes have been given an QUALICOAT certificate while the wood finishes are labeled with an QUALITAL credential. Finally, the ISO 9001 is soon to be implemented making Extrugasa one of the very few aluminum companies to achieve it.
The logistic platforms
The quality of the product is not however the only feature that makes Extrugasa an outstanding company in the aluminum profiles market. The key feature to distinguish an average company from an excellent one is not only what the company makes or how does it make it. It is also the delivery time that matters. Knowing that, Extrugasa have created a logistics platform that makes sure that the products are transported to its clients on time and in perfect shape. The firm’s fleet counts more than 50 small and large trucks that are present on the roads of the EU supplying 9 warehouses around the continent. Besides, the company have launched an automatic store system that helps to manage more than 4 thousands different types of aluminum profiles that the company manufactures in no time.
The scope of activity
The company believes that a key factor that fueled this development was a complete devotion to the quality of the products and to the desires of its clients. Another important factor was the wide range of offered manufacturing techniques that allowed Extrugasa to diversify into a whole variety of sectors. Of course, the most important one is constructions. Extrugasa has been present in the process of making some important buildings all over the world. The company has supplied profiles to the external sun protection of the new Wembley Stadium in London, helped built the airports in Vienna, Dublin, Brussels, Guatemala and Port-au-Prince as well as the Museum of Science and Arts in Valencia or Expo buildings in Lisbon. Among some other important sectors for the company are military (with end users such as the British Ministry of Defence and Armies of Switzerland, Turkey, Sweden, etc), automotive (supplying spares for some important brands producing cars, trucks and coaches), trains, lightning and a whole lot of other examples. This diversification means that new technologies have to be constantly incorporated into Extrugasa’s offer. The latest addition is the production of profiles of great magnitude, up to 800 mm.
Export markets
The majority of the income from abroad is generated by two main branches. 27% of the export goes to Latin America, mostly to Mexico, Puerto Rico, Republica Dominicana, etc. to supply aluminum profiles for architectural purposes. However, most of the products manufactured for industrial purposes go to European markets, mainly Portugal, France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Austria, Sweden, England, Ireland and Italy. What is worth acknowledging – the export branch is working as an independent department within the factory and, being able to communicate in six languages, is a guarantee of the best service for the foreign customers.
Environmental care
The pursuit of quality of the products and on time deliveries does not make the company forget about the preservation of the natural environment. The company have installed a waste treatment plant with a capacity reaching 90 thousand liters per hour – twice as much as needed nowadays. This emerges from a policy of foreseeing future needs of the ever developing company. Besides, Extrugasa uses natural gas as a substitute for propane. The decision was made not on economical bases but due to the fact that natural gas is the cleanest and least polluting of all fossil fuels. Moreover, the company is collaborating for almost 15 years with the municipal waste facility to take care of the most polluting waste of the process of production.
Manufacturing in the time of crisis
At the present times of the global economical crisis a lot of companies must face a challenge of retaining its position on the market. In Extrugasa’s case however, the diversity of its products guarantees that the crisis will affect only some parts of its activity. The crisis have influenced the Spanish market quite severely, especially in the constructions sector. The company is looking to compensate these losses on the foreign markets. Indeed it seems like the firm’s CEO’s have predicted the collapse of the global economy. Extrugasa have reduced its dependence on the local architecture market from 90% in 2003 to 60% nowadays, even though the building sector have been offering new technologies and new opportunities each and every year. This situation brings the company to a situation where it may look at the current crisis with more optimism than its competition.
A quality you can see for yourself
At Extrugasa, the staff believes that currently the age-old relationship between the customer and the supplier have changed significantly. Today, the supplier needs to be proactive to make sure that these limited opportunities that the markets provide are taken. A great number of collaborating companies accept an invitation from Extrugasa to visit the company in its headquarters, where its full potential is shown. The firm’s staff invites all of its prospective customers to see all the opportunities that can be provided by collaboration with extrugasa, knowing that no customer ever leave the company’s estates disappointed.
