Dedicated to manufacturing automotive parts, the Basque company Teknia is also giving its own twist to the business. It has just launched an ambitious strategic plan, focused on growth and open to new acquisitions, with its sights set on North America, where it has already taken positions in Mexico and the United States. It does so while working at the pace of the rapid technological transition towards the electric car and also, in the case of Spain, the Perte VEC to guarantee the future of the industry.
The company was founded 32 years ago, in 1992, between the Olympics and world exhibitions. It was the moment chosen by Javier Quesada Suescun from Barcelona to take advantage of his experience in business management and become an entrepreneur. This industrial engineer had worked at Egaña, the precursor of the only automotive supplier that has reached the Ibex, Cie Automotive, and saw the opportunity to launch his own project.
It began with a workshop in Zaldibar, in Vizcaya, with 29 workers and two million euros of income that, over the years and through acquisitions, transformed into a group of 3,500 employees, almost 400 million in turnover and 23 factories in thirteen countries. Its origin and progression are reminiscent of other groups in the sector such as Gestamp, Antolin or Cie, although Teknia has a more modest size.
The company cites the generational change and the new strategic plan as the two great immediate challenges for the company. Quesada Suescun has transferred the assets to his son Javier Quesada de Luis and has stepped away from management to assume the sole position of honorary president.
For now, the new general director, Quesada de Luis, has a board of directors in which he is accompanied by two relevant figures: Iñigo Marco-Gardoqui, general director of the wealth manager Alantra, and José Antonio Jainaga, president and founder from Sidenor, apart from an influential Basque businessman who is credited with interest in Celsa.
The recent strategic plan, called Moving Teknia 2025, also marks the company's moment. The ambition is to achieve revenues of 600 million euros at the end of the period and increase the margin on revenues to 13%, compared to 10%. It represents a high profitability objective for a supplier of this profile.
“It will be key to continue advancing our objectives,” which include growing, incorporating new technology and increasing profitability, says Quesada de Luis. The motto is to get a “solid and profitable” base to gain momentum. There will be a commitment to digitalization and also cost adjustments to promote the most profitable businesses.
The acquisitions chapter is one of the most interesting parts of the plan. The company “will begin a study for the incorporation of new industrial groups in strategic markets that have a turnover of more than 80 million euros,” he says.
New mobility companies are on the radar, and so is international expansion. Teknia, which currently earns half of its revenue in Europe, wants to diversify and is exploring an acquisition in North America that will add to its plant in the United States and the three in Mexico. It is also studying opportunities in Asia.
An example of the company's international projection is the recent purchase of a factory in Sweden last year. It is dedicated to the production of aluminum parts, a lightweight material that is in high demand in an industry obsessed with reducing CO2 emissions. This activity, related to aluminum, is the one with the greatest growth, ahead of the manufacture of plastic parts, tubes, stamping or machining.
Meanwhile, the group continues to take advantage of opportunities in Spain and plans an investment of 8 million euros to modernize its Ampuero plant, in Cantabria.
All of these plans are being developed with a trajectory of continuous profit growth since the year the company was created, only interrupted by a setback in 2009. At the moment, as indicated by the company, there are no plans to go public. 100% of the capital belongs to the family, whose red line is to maintain control. There is also no intention to sell part of the shareholding to investment funds. “The vision is long-term,” they say.
