Cikautxo to open a plant in Romania

The Cikautxo cooperative is a member of the MONDRAGON Corporation, and has its headquarters in Berriatua (Bizkaia). It specialises in the design and manufacture of rubber and plastic parts for a range of different applications.

Production is scheduled to start this coming May at its new plant in Romania, in which the cooperative has invested 8 million euros. The facility will manufacture fluid transfer products, and its main customers will be VW and Renault.

The plant is located on the outskirts of Cluj-Napoca, in the northwest of the country, and will employ 150 people. Together with the current facilities in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, it will cater for customer needs in Central-Eastern Europe.

International Profile

Following the commissioning of this new plant in Romania, the Cikautxo Group now has nine subsidiaries. The headquarters in Berriatua are home to the Group’s central services, and its production facilities there will post a record turnover this year of 100 million euros; a further four facilities are dedicated manufacturing plants (Zaragoza - Spain, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Romania), and another three are involved in both product development and manufacturing, servicing the needs of markets in Asia (China and India) and in the Americas (Mexico). Finally, the Group has an engineering office in Detroit (USA).

As far as Europe is concerned, and thanks to its global positioning, Cikautxo has managed to increase the parent company’s turnover this year by five million euros, while also sustaining solid growth in Eastern Europe, as confirmed by the building and commissioning of the new plant in Romania.

About Cikautxo. The Cikautxo Group currently employs 624 people in Berriatua, and 2,800 people throughout the Group as a whole. It expects to see continued growth in its workforce, involving mainly highly skilled jobs, engineering, and graduates with diplomas or full degrees. Specifically, the forecasts for 2016 are for 2,950 employees, with 650 employed at the parent company.

2015 Results. The Cikautxo Group closed 2015 with consolidated sales of 225 million euros, a year-on-year growth of 15% over 2014. The outlook for this year is a repeat of this figure of 15% growth, up to 260 million euros. This growth forecast applies to both the European market (+12%) and all the other markets around the world, where its subsidiaries in China, Mexico and India are expected to see sharp growth (+57%).