Toda la historia

At the 1st Congress of the Mondragón Co-operative Group the Basic Principles of the Co-operative Experience were approved together with the bases for setting up the Inter-co-operative Solidarity Fund, designed as a new co-operation experience aimed at promoting job creation through the funding of co-operative development.
748 new jobs were created over the year which took the total workforce to 18,262 worker-members. It is worth stressing that this growth took place without damaging productivity, which increased by almost 4%. Total sales came to more than €1bn in absolute terms and exports rose by 8.8% in relative terms, totalling €213.96m (35.7bn pesetas).
Eroski opened five new stores in its chain in Bilbao, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Leioa and Orduña. There were also 176 stores in the Erosle chain. This co-operative also focused a lot on consumer information during the year with the publication of the Eroski magazine and Eroskide.

The creation of the European Single Market, with the gradual disappearance of tariff barriers, was a great challenge for our co-operatives which had to adapt to the size and upgrade in technology required by the new rules of the game.
Lagun Aro’s General Assembly eliminated the Marriage Allowance, one of the most traditional benefits in our co-operatives. The social role of women meant that this historic benefit had become an anachronism that was difficult to justify. Fabrelec (today Edesa) became a part of Fagor, increasing its production and sales potential, which took the overall sales in the domestic appliance area to €313.85m, of which €96.71m were attributable to Fabrelec. Eroski added a new hypermarket in Berango (Bizkaia), a supermarket in Arrasate/Mondragón, an urban supermarket in Basauri, two specialist domestic appliance stores in Bilbao and Legazpi and a travel agency in Algorta to its chain.

The III Co-operative Congress took place to approve the Organisational Project for the MCC (Mondragón Corporación Cooperativa) and the Basic Regulations for the Remuneration Policy. MONDRAGON was named by General Motors as Corporation of the Year in Europe for Service-Price Quality and, the same year, what is now LKS was set up as the continuation of Caja Laboral’s Business Division.
Irizar presented the Century, a new coach model in the design of which equal weight was given to comfort, safety and economy, with a reduction in fuel consumption.
Orona and Urssa, co-operatives in the construction sector, played a leading role in some of the most important buildings at the Universal Exhibition in Seville and in the facilities for the Barcelona Olympics. Fagor’s excellent image in the market was a determining factor in the company being selected as an official supplier for the Universal Exhibition in Seville, both to equip the Expo 92 City homes and for the catering equipment in the Spanish pavilion and in a number of the autonomous community pavilions.

In a year so negative for the economy, especially for industry, the Corporation performed satisfactorily. The sales of the Industrial Group and the distribution Group together accounted for €2.55bn, with exports totalling €371.47m.
The industrial employment generated by the Corporation’s co-operatives in the Basque Autonomous Community was close to 7% and more than 15% in the province of Gipuzkoa, which meant that one out of every seven workers in the industrial sector in the province was working for an MCC company.
Ikerlan took part in a new Eureka project and the Orbea co-operative supplied the Euskadi Cycling Foundation with racing bikes.

The creation of 1,960 new jobs in the Corporation’s co-operatives as a whole was one of the most gratifying achievements in a year in which there was spectacular export growth in the capital goods sector. Danobat made sales worth €18m to Meizhov and Norinco in the Peoples’ Republic of China. Also in China, Fagor Arrasate supplied Jianghui with the biggest mechanical press built in Spain.
The setting up of MTC, dedicated to the research and development of products manufactured with thermoplastics, at a cost of €3.6m, was a further step in the consolidation of the policy to strengthen the cooperatives in terms of technology.
The Irizar co-operative was awarded the Prince Felipe Prize for professional excellence in the design category and the Coach of the Year Award in Spain. In the construction sector, Urssa’s participation in the building of the metal structure for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao designed by Frank Gehry and in the work on the Bilbao Metro stood out. Fagor Electrodomésticos opened a refrigerator plant in Mohamedia in Morocco.

On 14th April, coinciding with the anniversary of the setting up of Ulgor, the first co-operative, the MONDRAGON server was created on the Internet. This server offered visitors extensive information about the Corporation and about the unique characteristics of the Co-operative Experience (www.mcc.es).
MCC Desarrollo was formally set up as a corporate platform, with both the Basque Government and the MCC taking a holding, aimed at funding and developing industrial co-operative projects, by taking a temporary stake in their capital. The Household Division, in which Fagor Electrodomésticos was the biggest firm, posted sales of more than €600m, which was the mythical figure of 100bn pesetas. Enyca, a company specialising in telecommunications based in the Cantabria region joined the Group. Fagor Ederlan improved its production capacity with the installation of two new aluminium die-casting cells, of 1,800 and 2,500 tonnes respectively. Fagor Automation strengthened its international presence by opening new subsidiaries in United States.

The year was a clear example of the policy of support and co-operation for the development of the MCC cooperatives, which overall earmarked around €523m for investment. Caja Laboral surpassed another mythical figure: one trillion pesetas, or what amounts to the same, €6bn in terms of assets under administration, with a year-on-year increase of 12%.
The MCC’s total sales also passed the trillion barrier in pesetas (€6.27bn), a result in which the excellent performance of export sales stood out, in spite of the initial lethargy in the international markets. The takeover by Fagor Electrodomésticos and MCC Inversiones of the Polish firm Wrozamet, a local domestic appliance manufacture, stood out. It is also worth highlighting that the following firms all set up plants abroad: Batz in Brazil, Cikautxo in the Czech Republic, Maier in Great Britain and Irizar in Mexico. The Basque Foundation for Quality Euskalit also awarded Irizar the Gold Q; whilst Copreci and Fagor Electrónica were awarded the Silver Q. The EroskiGroup, which had signed a collaboration agreement with the Food Bank Foundation, handed over close to 300,000 kilos of products to this humanitarian organisation.

Faced with the widespread economic slowdown in the industrial sector, with a 1.2% drop in Spain, the MONDRAGON Industrial area achieved growth of 0.1% and continued to promote cooperative employment: 740 workers became co-operative members.
Investment set an historic record: €872m to increase and modernise production capacity, raise the level of internationalisation and consolidate the Corporation’s presence in activities related to new technologies. In the area of internationalisation Copreci moved into Italy with the takeover of Rampgas, Maier into Great Britain through Chromeco, Eika into the Czech Republic, Irizar, Coinma and Danona into India, and Copreci, Cikautxo
and Fagor Ederlan into Brazil.
Caja Laboral now had 300 branches and continued its expansion programme with 26 new offices, mainly in the regions of Castilla-León and Aragón.

The strong appreciation of the euro compared to the dollar had its effect on MONDRAGON’s international sales, which fell slightly over total sales: export sales and those from production plants at subsidiaries abroad accounted for €2.15bn.
Caja Laboral made progress in the implementation of the client-company Management Model, with new branches and combined offices, taking the total to 336, whilst its client base had reached 1,039,000. As for Lagun Aro, there were a total of 28,204 members, 52,835 beneficiaries and 6,523 pensioners.
The Eroski Group continued to grow with new stores including the hypermarket which was the driving force behind the Boulevard hopping Centre in Vitoria-Gasteiz. The second issue of “Eroski Financial Contributions”, to the value of €70m, funded the increase of the stake in Mercat. In the retail sector the Valencia-based cooperative Consum left the Group.

It was a very positive year for MONDRAGON with an increase in the workforce of more than 7,500 people and sales up more than 13%, together with €866m of investment, mainly in the industrial sector.
Lagun Aro had a total of 29,538 members, in 120 co-operatives, with an increase of 299 people. There were 7,303 pensioners, 419 more than the previous year. Investment totalling €298m enabled the Retail Group to open 140 new stores, including 5 hypermarkets, 7 petrol stations, 49 branches of Eroski Viajes, 8 leisure and sports outlets and 49 perfume stores. The firm commitment to quality in product and process management was clear from the 108 IS0-9000 certifications and 42 IS0-14000 environmental quality certifications and EFQM assessments that the MONDRAGON co-operatives held. By way of example, Fagor Electrodomésticos’ Comfort Business received the Silver Q from Euskalit.

The international economic crisis began to be apparent, in a year of two clearly different parts: a first half of economic prosperity and a second half in which a fall in demand began to show. In this economic climate, MONDRAGON’s sales rose by 12%.
t was clear that for the Retail Area the takeover of Caprabo was the most important milestone in the year. With this operation, Eroski increased its retail and service floor space by 30% (2.5m new customers). In addition to this, new stores were also opened, 53% more than the previous year.
In the Financial Area, Caja Laboral’s turnover continued to rise, with an 8.7% increase in equity, 8.8% in total assets under administration and 15.5% in loans. As far as Lagun Aro EPSV is concerned, new record figures were achieved in terms of the number of members (30,476) and pensioners (8,176).

The year was characterised by significant adjustment, structural and strategic measures, taken to improve the co-operatives’ competitiveness, tackle the complicated economic situation and, in turn, emerge stronger from the global crisis.
There was a very special element to this crisis in terms of the people affected in that a very high proportion of the members of the MONDRAGON cooperatives had joined over the last 10-12 years, and had never before lived through a crisis and, therefore, were now experiencing something that was new to most of them. At the end of December, the number of people affiliated to Lagun Aro EPSV totalled 30,757, 636 people less than the previous year.
Caja Laboral, a body set up in 1959 and therefore celebrating its 50th anniversary, performed modestly, with the assets on its balance sheet accounting for €21.2bn, with an annual increase of €405m. In the Industrial Area, the slowdown in demand had a big effect on construction, capital goods and consumer durables.

MONDRAGON continued its process of internationalisation, in a year in which sales in foreign markets were, once again, the driving force behind the industrial sector. In June, Orona started building work on its new facilities in Galarreta (Hernani) in which the company, university and research centre will work together in a common space to be known as Orona Ideo Innovation City.
On 28th September, the 650 delegates of the MONDRAGON Co-operative Congress unanimously approved the Socio-business Policy 2013-2016, which proposes to transform its business fabric to generate value-added employment that is preferably co-operative in nature. This is a challenge that will require significant changes: adjusting the size of businesses to the global market, orientation towards emerging markets, possible development of new strategic partnerships, reorganisation of activities with less potential for growth, and firm commitment to carrying out integrated corporate projects, among others.

In a year starring the Fagor Electrodomésticos crisis, other more positive news had also occurred, such as the integration of Caja Laboral and Ipar Kutxa, becoming the new LABORAL Kutxa, one of the most solvent financial institutions of the State.
In the industrial sector, it is worth mentioning the progress of the Orona Ideo project, the Orona Innovation city in Hernani (Gipuzkoa); the events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the cooperatives Fagor Ederlan, Copreci and Batz; or the integration of the activities of Fagor Arrasate and Onapres to expand the range of solutions in the forming and processing of sheet metal.

From an institutional perspective, 2015 has been the prelude to the forthcoming Congress, and the year has seen a great deal of hard work done on the content of two of the proposals to be debated there: MONDRAGON of the future and Corporate business policy 2017/2020.
2015 has been a good year for the group, with significant advances made in both turnover and earnings. Furthermore, progress has continued to be made in responding to the needs of worker-members affected by structural unemployment in certain cooperatives. Special mention should be made accordingly of the Industry area, which over the course of the year has managed to create just over 1,200 new jobs.