From the group’s Spanish branch come major growth signals

Following the merger in June 2007 of Sapa’s aluminium extrusion business and Alcoa’s soft aluminium extrusion operation, the new Sapa has taken centre stage as the world’s largest producer of aluminium profiles. The scale of the enterprise is impressive. Sapa Profiles has 40 plants in 21 countries worldwide, operating 111 presses and employees over 8.800 people. As part of this organisation, Sapa Profiles España operates with 3 plants (all of them coming from the former Alcoa extrusion activities) and two sales offices (Barcelona and Toledo) in Spain. During the first year, the Spanish organization has been working in the integration process of transforming its behaviour of a profile-seller into the strategy of a solution-provider. Now, Sapa Profiles España is acting as ‘one stop shop’ supplier to their customers, from offering support in design and engineering to delivering production and logistic solutions.
The foundation for Sapa Profiles España strategic direction rests on the 3 key pillars of the Group - Environment, Health and Safety (EHS), Genesis and Customer Intimacy. It is recognised that all aspects of environmental and health and safety issues have to be addressed in all the companies activities to attain continuous improvement. Sapa also works in accordance with Genesis, an interpretation and adaptation of the Toyota Production system, which is the basis for the common company culture. In the context of what is described as Customer Intimacy it is recognised that Sapa’s customers do not simply purchase aluminium profiles - they ask for product solutions based on aluminium that improve their own offering on the market. In that sense, the company accepts that it must have the skills and resources to understand its client’s industries. In addition the organisation must have the technological and operational knowledge to transform this into cost-effective manufacturing.

Following this strategy, the Spanish plants have been specialized by market segments to better satisfy the customers’ requirements. La Selva (Tarragona) will be the expert in furniture, shower enclosures and lighting, Perfialsa (La Coruña) is the specialist in building and construction and produces the company building systems, on the other hand Navarra will be specialized in commercial transportation, automotion or industry in general. All Sapa’s new investments will be focused on offering an added value product to the markets they serve, for example, Navarra will invest in a precision saw, punching machines and a CNC milling machine, required to the markets it attends.
The new Sapa has considerably increased engineering resources and capital in R&D to realise market opportunities. Sapa has invested over 3 million euro in a new Sapa Innovation Center. The innovation Centre provides a global forum for collaboration between the Sapa companies and its customers. It combines Sapa expertise in aluminium with their customers’ industrial know-how. The centre houses premises for technical services, prototype building and training.
Resulting from their global strategy, and depending on the Innovation Center, the Spanish organisation has inaugurated its local Application Centre, whose objective is to translate the global expertise and know-how in applications that the local market needs. In close cooperation with the customer, the team will be devoted to create more innovative and creative solutions to promote the customers’ offer in the market. The Sapa Technology Center, the Group’s joint research and development center, is, at the moment, involved in some new projects in added fabrication (ad fab) processes. It is staffed with specialists who have in depth knowledge of the manufacture and use of aluminium. They focus on everything from the control of alloy content to changing production processes to satisfy customer preferences. Sapa Technology employs 45 experts with backgrounds primarily in materials technology, physics and chemistry: hydroforming, friction stir welding, cooling new solutions.
Since proximity to the customer is important, Sapa has also its Profiles Academy: customers are invited to spend four days learning more about aluminium and aluminium profiles. Experts from Sapa, together with highly qualified external lecturers, give advanced courses on the possibilities offered by aluminium profiles. The Spanish organization will inaugurate the Profile Academy at the very beginning of next year. A training will be organised for the furniture and lighting market. Customers and designers will be invited to attend a forum on extrusion capabilities, design and market requirements.