2023-06-24 17:01:06
Giant step forward in international expansion and diversification of clients of the largest manufacturer of automotive components in Galicia: Grupo Empresarial Copo (GEC). The Mos-based consortium has just signed a worldwide contract with the American manufacturer of electric cars Tesla for the supply of fabrics for seats and interiors, a project that will help consolidate the textile division of the holding company in Europe and Mexico. At the same time, the start-up of the new plant in Slovakia is finalizing, which will begin mass production in April 2024 and in which more than 4 million euros have been invested. The aggregate sales of the group increased by 10% last year, up to 240 million euros, with 1,400 workers distributed among the centers in Spain, Portugal, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Mexico, Brazil and Cuba.
The Tesla project represents a qualitative leap for the Galician consortium, for all that the brand led by Elon Musk represents at the image level, but also quantitative, since will contribute more than 6 million euros of turnover per year between the markets of Mexico, Europe and China, where Copo will supply fabrics for the seats and pillars of these electric models. It also represents a leap in the customer diversification strategy. GEC supplies foams and fabrics to the main OEMs in the world (Stellantis, Volkswagen Group, Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Group, Mercedes, BMW, Hyundai, Honda…), but in recent years it has entered the premium segment with force, with customers like Ferrari and now, Tesla.
The Mos-based consortium employs 1,400 workers in eight countries
Copo is also finalizing the launch of its new plant in Slovakia, where will manufacture components for the next generation of Audi Q3, and that series production will start next April. The center, in the outskirts of Bratislava, the capital of the country, involved an associated investment of more than 4 million euros and is the third factory launched by the group abroad since 2015 after those in Pilsen (Czech Republic) and Guanajuato (Mexico). Specifically, GEC will manufacture molded foam for the Q3 seats. Another supplier from Vigo that has among its plans the jump to Eastern Europe, although it has not yet taken the step – largely due to the unforeseen semiconductor crisis – is Marsan, which, like Copo, also has plants in Mexico.
Copo started its activity in 1969 under another name, Espumaciones Industriales Roday, and it would not be until 1972, at the hands of three Galician automotive pioneers such as Román Yarza, Antonio Estévez and Francisco Ayuso, when it began the path of what it is today: the largest provider of Galician capital, with 1,400 workers, plants in eight countries and an aggregate turnover that in the last year reached 240 million euros, after registering a growth of 10%.
Its expansion plan intensified from 2015 with the opening of a commercial and textile design office in Germany, the start-up of Copo Textile México, the purchase of new facilities for Copo Iberoméxico, its establishment in Pilsen and the acquisition of Flexipol. in São João da Madeira, which is now followed by the project in Slovakia.
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Since Rodriguez Estevez took the reins of the group replacing Francisco AngueraCopo redoubled its commitment to innovation and development by creating unique new products on the market and regaining control of the Copo Technology Center (CETEC), which it shared for years through a joint venture with the French giant Faurecia.
Components
One of the subsidiaries of Grupo Copo is Componentes de Vehículos de Galicia in Porriño, owned in equal parts with Faurecia. The French corporation sold the business division to which Components belonged two years ago to the Italian Adler, with the exception of the two plants that it shared with other companies, one of them in Porriño. For now, Faurecia remains a shareholder of the Galician center, but since this year GEC has assumed the commercial management of the carpet division to which Componentes belongs.
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