CompositesWorld
Issue link: https://cw.epubxp.com/i/697353
JULY 2016 32 CompositesWorld » Growing a business in today's global economy takes skill, know-how, courage and a lot of hard work — particularly if your enterprise involves supplying carbon composites to multiple markets. Such is the case with Carbures (El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain), a Tier 2 composite part supplier to Airbus (Toulouse, France) and a long list of additional aero- space, rail transit, automotive and infrastructure clients. Te company has grown signifcantly from its beginnings in 1999 as a University of Cadiz spin-of, working for Airbus on a resin cure problem (see Learn More). Today, its nearly 1,000 employees work in 18 locations worldwide, organized into three business units: Aerospace and Defense, headed by Javier Moreno; Civil Works, headed by Raúl Garcia; and the company's newest unit, Mobility, headed by Josef Neuhäusler, all under the leadership of chief executive ofcer (CEO) Roberto Rey. Carbures invited CW to visit three of its busiest facilities, located in Spain, to see and understand its operations frst hand. Two are part of the Aerospace and Defense group, and the third houses Mobility operations. Jerez — Aerospace and Defense CW's frst stop is Carbures' 7,700m 2 facility in Jerez de la Frontera, adjacent to the city's airport, a few miles from the company's birthplace in Cadiz, near the southern tip of Spain. Built in 2013, it's considered an extension of the company's original Technobahia proto- typing and production center, built in 2004 a few miles away in El Puerto de Santa Maria. Technobahia came about when Carbures, after its post-university startup period under its previous name, Easy Industrial Solutions, merged with a local frm, Atlantica Composites, and began work with an Airbus Tier 1 supplier. Te Technobahia facility obtained Airbus Military certifcation in 2005, and received its frst Airbus work packages around 2006. In the seven intervening years, more than six-fold expansion necessitated the new building. Says Álvaro Gonce Gómez, its head of manufacturing, "In 2012, our operating budget was €1.3 million [US$1.46 million] with just the Technobahia facility, and by 2015 it had On a rapid and audacious growth trajectory, this Tier 2 supplier based on the Iberian Peninsula opens the doors of three of its key facilities in Spain. Carbures, El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain By Sara Black / Technical Editor