The world’s largest industrial and medical gases company that is not listed on the financial markets has invested 7 million euros in a facility occupying 14,500 square metres in the Miguel de Eguía industrial estate, the start-up of which will generate 25 new jobs. In addition, this work centre has a production capacity of 250,000 gas cylinders per year, will operate one hundred percent with renewable energy and, in the future, will also have other green hydrogen filling lines.
“Our new plant increases the company’s competitiveness and reinforces its growth strategy in the Iberian Peninsula,” said Rubén Folgado, general manager of Messer Ibérica. In this sense, he recalled that its products are “necessary elements” for many industrial processes “where they offer greater safety, increase efficiency and improve the environmental impact of customers’ production processes”, he added. Folgado’s statements were made in front of a large group of guests headed by the main authorities of the region, such as the President of Navarre, María Chivite, and Alicia Echeverría, the Government Delegate in the region. Also present were the Regional Minister for Industry and Ecological and Digital Business Transition, Mikel Irujo; as well as Marta Ruiz, Mayor of Estella.
The hosts were Stefan Messer, President and owner of the group, who was accompanied by the Chief Operation Officer in Europe, Virginia Esly, as well as the aforementioned Rubén Folgado. In his speech, Messer summarised the 125-year history of the company, today the largest industrial and medical gases company in the world that is not listed on the financial markets. He also valued its operational capacity in Europe, Asia and America, where it has 11,500 employees, and affirmed that the company’s development in Spain “is solid and that its growth is progressing well”.
Virginia Esly said that despite the uncertainties surrounding the market, Messer’s European business “continues to demonstrate its resilience”. “Our strategy of independence for profitable growth also includes the investment we have just made in Navarra,” she added.
Meanwhile, the president of Navarre, María Chivite, valued the investment made in Estella for the number of jobs created. “This is a concrete example of how projects such as those represented by Messer directly improve people’s lives,” she said. Along the same lines, he highlighted other benefits of the project in terms of social and territorial cohesion, economic growth, diversification of Navarre’s industry, as well as its positive effect on the environment and climate change. “It is encouraging that companies such as yours, with an international scope, are so committed to reducing environmental impact by leading solutions for
decarbonisation solutions; or, as in your case, operating 100% on renewable energy. Hopefully we will soon be able to count on those future green hydrogen filling lines that you plan to install here,” he concluded.
Source: Navarra Capital