The cooperative based in Trapagaran, specialized in industrial assembly services, implements a business model change based on R&D
There are critical moments in the life of companies that highlight the need to change their course to redirect them towards a better future. COOPENOR, S. COOP, a firm created in 1978 by a cooperative initiative of around 30 welders and pipe workers dedicated to industrial assembly, found itself in such a situation six years ago. It was necessary to make decisions not only to improve organizational functioning, but also to transform the company so that it could respond to the demands of a changing and increasingly competitive market.
Nowadays, having overcome the rough patch through the application of measures to improve the traditional activity, it has started a process of transformation of the business model over a period of two or three years based on investment in engineering and machinery. “We saw that we could not base our future on continuing to sell hours/person because the margin that this type of business gives us is very small and, in a short period of time, it would be impossible for us to compete in price with European countries with cheaper labour”, explains the CEO of the cooperative, Esteban Del Valle.
Consequently, COOPENOR, S.COOP. has launched for the future a plan that has been called Project Leap Forward. “What we want to achieve with this plan – points out the director – is not to make a sequential evolution, but to try to take a leap and change the company’s business model in a very short period of time. We want to start selling turnkey projects and, later, even our own product; so that we can provide more added value to our production”.
The strategy followed to achieve these objectives is based on two fundamental pillars: the strengthening of the engineering area and the introduction of advanced machinery.
Financing
The main problem for the company to carry out the plan was its financing. However, the purposes of COOPENOR, S.COOP. have found support through public institutions. “Thanks to the support of Seed Capital Bizkaia, we have been able to initiate this process of changing the business model to try to set a new course for the business and become able to finance our growth with our own resources”, Del Valle advances.
“The implementation of this plan contemplates some growth objectives, not only for turnover but also for the creation of permanent employment. It contemplates that, in five years, we will get to be around two hundred people in the company, when now we are about fifty. It also expects annual sales to rise significantly”.
COOPENOR, S.COOP. works for most of the industry subsectors in the fields of installations, structures, pipelines, and regulation, measurement stations and gas positions. It also has several certifications (ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 16001) that provide it an important differentiation value compared to the competition. “Our company”, says Del Valle, “is known for making high-quality welding, usually associated to pipes, although we also make any kind of metal structure and light boilermaking. Our main clients belong to the group of large petrochemical, food, ship building and natural gas storage industries in Bizkaia”.
The new course undertaken by COOPENOR, S.COOP. cannot be separated, in the opinion of its managers, from maintaining the cooperative character of the company. “We must maintain our two hallmarks that, ultimately, have allowed us to move forward: the commitment of workers to the business project and the prestige that the high quality of our work gives us”, says Esteban Del Valle.
