Fernando Rodríguez hands over the management of Elcoro and Norica to his daughters María Jesús and María Asun, who will strengthen the company’s commitment to its own products.

Elcoro Decoletaje and Norica celebrate this year the 130th and 105th anniversary of their creation, respectively. Two centenary industrial projects that face this anniversary having completed the generational handover at the head of both businesses and with the design of strategic plans in which they will focus on the environment and sustainability, the strengthening and automation of their manufacturing systems and the promotion in the market of their new generations of own products: the ‘Topac’ pneumatic hammers (Elcoro) and the historic ‘Norica’ compressed air carbines.

The new chapter in Elcoro’s history will bear the signature of María Jesús Rodríguez, who has taken over from her father Fernando after a long career in the company. The new managing director told Empresa XXI that the work for the next two years will focus on “continuing the actions of recent years in the environment and improving the resources and organisation of the plants, to which we will add the expansion of the dual training plan with the Miguel Altuna centre in Bergara and the international promotion of our Topac pneumatic hammers. In 2022, we will combine this work with a series of events to commemorate the 135th anniversary with customers, suppliers, authorities and the team”.

Automotive, electrical and mining

As María Jesús acknowledges, its two main customer sectors: automotive and electrical maintain a good level of demand: “Elcoro, in automotive, has no exposure in the motor area. Our supplies are focused on components and assemblies for intelligent seats and brake and suspension systems and we are maintaining delivery volumes. The electrical area is stronger, with a good evolution of the manufacturing plans for Ormazabal, for example. This means that we have introduced and reinforced the third machining shift”. However, the positive note has been around mining and the rise in raw material prices, which has boosted demand for its pneumatic breakers: “We have customers in around twenty countries, especially in America, where coal is making great progress.

Elcoro focuses on sustainability and increasing workshop capacity

To boost this business, we are immersed in work to improve our pneumatic breakers: mini choppers, choppers, breakers and drills; and in the study to boost the Elgeta assembly plant, which we will complete this year and which will include moving from a manual to a semi-automatic system with a new lay-out and the introduction, in 2023, of a test bench for research into new steels and traceability of the mechanical data of the breakers”.

New resources and investment plans

After the recent introduction of CNC lathes with a ‘Y’ axis in its turrets, an ecological washing machine for all products, a line for the treatment of swarf and 100% use of waste drillings and oils and a three-dimensional one for the quality area, the machining activity for third parties will register another boost with investments that have been presented to public aid programmes and which include lathes, a test bench for pneumatic hammers and the possibility of multi-spindles if they formalise “offers under negotiation”. In management, they are currently tackling the implementation of ISO 14001, to give continuity to the environmental work, the audit of which they will pass in a few months and will coincide with the renewal of IATF 16949:2016 and ISO 9001:2015. Sustainability actions have also included the installation of a photovoltaic plant, which will reduce between 20 and 25 percent of electricity consumption, and other measures to reduce consumption and waste.

Finally, the director of Elcoro highlights the plan to increase the number of students in dual training to five, following the good results obtained in the past with the Miguel Altuna centre and, initially, with the IMH. She is confident that this series of actions will consolidate the progress of a company that currently has a turnover of more than six million euros and employs 65 workers.

News complete: Empresa XXI