Institutional inauguration of the new SORALUCE assembly plant by Basque President Iñigo Urkullu

•  As part of the SORALUCE SUMMIT 2023, this morning Basque President Iñigo Urkullu Renteria inaugurated the New SORALUCE Assembly Plant at its main facility in Bergara´s Osintxu district.

• Addressing the challenges of the sector and its desire to expand, the machine tool manufacturer intends to add a new line of milling machines to its product portfolio, the SORALUCE Performance Line, which was also presented during the event.

• The new assembly plant was designed and built on sustainable criteria, and will have LEED Gold Certification. This means that SORALUCE will be enlarging its total manufacturing area to 30,000 m².

• As part of its commitment to its surroundings, SORALUCE is spearheading progress in the Osintxu district through the Osintxu Bizi project, with a multidimensional approach encompassing economic and industrial issues, town planning, environmental and human aspects. The Osintxu Bizi project is a clear example of community and collective action singled out by the Basque President to continue expansion and generate job opportunities.

Through innovation, specialisation, growth, sustainability and the lessons learned from more than 60 years´ experience in the sector, SORALUCE SUMMIT 2023 reflects a spirit of leadership centring on growth, hard work, non-conformity, commitment and perseverance.

As part of the DANOBATGROUP investment package, which has a total budget of 35 million euros to enlarge and modernise the DANOBAT facilities in Elgoibar, GOIMEK in Itziar and SORALUCE in Bergara, this cooperative, a world leader in milling, boring and multipurpose technology, will be investing over 15 million euros to consolidate its entire activity in Osintxu and Mekolalde. 

This morning Basque President Iñigo Urkullu Renteria inaugurated a new assembly plant at SORALUCE´s main facility. These 2,530 m² add to the current facilities, with a total surface area of 30,000 m². To undertake this investment, SORALUCE had the backing of the Basque Government on the Bilakatu programme, and also signed over two agreements with Bergara town hall in 2019 and 2021.

The inauguration ceremony also featured other dignitaries such as Gorka Artola and Iker Aldazabal, acting Mayors of Bergara and Soraluze; Igor Gauna, acting Head of the Osintxu District Board; Arantxa Tapia, Basque Government Secretary for Economic Development and Infrastructures; Javier Larrañaga, the Provincial Council´s acting Secretary for Economic Promotion, Tourism and the Rural Environment; Iñigo Ucin, Chairman of Corporación MONDRAGON; Pello Rodriguez, CEO of DANOBATGROUP; Nerea Aranguren, Head of Innovation at DANOBATGROUP; Xabier Alzaga, Managing Director of DANOBAT; Aitor Txurruka, Managing Director of GOIMEK; and Pepe Perez and Xabier Ortueta, Chairman and CEO respectively of AFM, among other authorities and representatives of various administrations.

The focus on expansion of the company´s business and local job creation is based on its extension of the range of products and solutions and on major investment in new manufacturing plants and means of production. This focus sets the scene for the inauguration of a new assembly plant that will enable SORALUCE to boost its production capacity, and provide an even better service for its customers.

The plant also laid on the world presentation of the New Performance Line with live demonstrations. The new line represents significant progress in terms of the company´s ability to offer state-of-the-art solutions for the industry´s most challenging tasks. Against a backdrop in which industrial sectors require increasingly advanced technology solutions to address their future challenges, SORALUCE has taken another step forward to extend its range of milling, boring, multipurpose and automation solutions.

SORALUCE centres firmly on sustainability throughout the entire value chain for the activation of activities that make it possible to develop its activity and its partnership-enterprise project. It was for this reason that the new assembly plant was designed on sustainable criteria, and will have LEED GOLD certification. 

The new plant has photovoltaic panels, like SORALUCE´s other manufacturing facilities. The Basque company produces its own solar energy with solar panels fitted to a number of manufacturing plants, in a bid to reduce mains electricity consumption by 30%, and also reduce emissions of CO₂ into the atmosphere.

SORALUCE has also acquired a new 3,500 m² facility next to its main plant, in order to enlarge its advanced head production centre, as an in-house space which now designs, manufactures and tests heads for its machines, and this will be inaugurated in 2024. The investment also includes the inclusion of new machinery to produce the heads.

Osintxu Bizi

There can be no doubt that the prosperity of a territory relates to the progress of its industrial and business framework, but only cutting-edge companies realise that development also has links to their surroundings. It is a kind of symbiosis which fosters conscientious, constant growth over time for both parties. This is why industry and the extent to which it modernises itself play a crucial role to bring about a balance between the population and a highly qualified workforce in Euskadi.

In 2019 Osintxu was declared a Degraded Area by the Basque Government, whereupon, with the assistance of Bergara Town Hall, collaboration by local associations, local people and the SORALUCE and LKS KREAN cooperatives, the Osintxu Bizi project emerged.

SORALUCE supports and assists the Osintxu Bizi project to regenerate and improve the district, with all kinds of courses of action (infrastructures, facilities, sustainability, services, employment etc.), towards the common goal of bringing about prosperity and a guarantee of the district´s ongoing survival. The new plant forms part of the plans SORALUCE is undertaking for the area. In addition to the expansion of business and production facilities, the project will generate new direct jobs and knock-on employment locally. The Osintxu Bizi project also includes all kinds of projects in relation to the SDGs; (1) Affordable and clean energy, (2) Decent work and economic growth, (3) Industry, innovation and infrastructure and (4) Sustainable communities

“At SORALUCE we are extremely aware of the importance of the role we play. That is why, proud of the fact that we share a common history and comprehending the logic of giving to those who gave before us, we have transformed our drive into the drive for Osintxu with an ambitious project to help the district move forward, in a multidimensional approach homing in on economics, town planning, the environment, and human beings. The objective is to avail ourselves of state-of-the-art technology in order to create a state-of-the-art society. To create real value in people and in our surroundings”, explained Rafel Idigoras, the cooperative´s managing director.

About SORALUCE

With a wealth of experience based on more than 60 years of history and inspired by innovation, SORALUCE is moving the machine tool industry forward with innovative pioneer engineering solutions that have made it a benchmark within the sector.

SORALUCE´s success is based on excellent quality, the best possible service, in-house state-of-the-art technology, its technological capacity to customise each product in accordance with the individual requirements of the customer, and a fully international outlook. SORALUCE produces innovative solutions with a commitment to the technological progress of its customers, addressing the challenges of the most demanding machining work, and establishing new standards.

SORALUCE offers an extensive range of milling machines, boring machines and vertical lathes, multipurpose solutions and automated lines and systems, with a professional advisory service in machining engineering and a highly experienced technical team to assess the production and machining processes of our customers, and provide solutions to optimise them in accordance with the parameters of quality, efficiency and costs demanded by customers.

Innovation is SORALUCE´s cutting edge, and it has pioneered many of the technologies driving the machine tool sector, such as, for example, the DAS™ system (Dynamic Active Stabiliser), the Modular Quill system and the Ram Balance (a system to offset ram fall), all of which have been patented.

This European brand has a wealth of experience and has sold over 3,000 machines, almost half of them in Germany, an extremely demanding market. It has also been observed over the years that 80% of customers have returned to confirm their trust in its products.

SORALUCE forms part of DANOBATGROUP, the machine tool division of Corporación Mondragon, one of Europe´s largest business groups. It has Excellence Centres in Germany, Italy, the USA, China and the UK, and its own R+D centre staffed by 120 engineers and 29 Ph.Ds, a facility that goes back more than 30 years. DANOBATGROUP provides one of the market´s most comprehensive and competitive multi-technology offers. With a headcount of 1,400 employees and a turnover of 277 million euros, it has a clear focus on innovation, investing approximately 9% of revenue in R+D+i.