118 CHA

The premiere this Thursday afternoon in Illness of the documentary ‘Sakana’s voices. Melting dreams in iron ‘ Plasma the tour of today Sakana Group, constituted 50 years ago as an industrial cooperative specialized in the foundry of large pieces. The House of Culture has summoned more than 120 people in the presentation, which had the intervention of the intervention of Jaime Urcola, general director of Sakana Group, and Julen Razkin, vice president of the cooperative.

Words and images of founding partners as well as workers give cohesion to an audivisual assembly, conceived as a means of transmission between generations. “We wanted something that served as a living memory, to pick up the voices, the faces, the emotions of those who have been part of this story. The 50 years are not only a round figure, but an opportunity to look back with gratitude and forward with Com-Promiso,” says Jaime Urcola.

Sakana Group is recognized today as “One of Navarra’s main industrial cooperatives and a European reference in the foundry of large pieces for sectors such as wind, sailor or rail. The group has more than 250 workers and concentrates a good part of its activity in Lakuntza, a town that remains its operational headquarters and where several of its plants are located. ”In recent years, the company“ has started new investments aimed at consolidating its presence in the offshore sector. The adaptation of their processes to the requirements of marine wind turbines has allowed manufacturing pieces of great technical complexity and record dimensions for leading customers in the earthly and sea wind sector. Today’s challenges – economic uncertainty, environmental impact, social changes, wars and their consequences – demand solid answers. This anniversary reminds us that solidity does not come from absolute certainties, but to have firm values: collaboration, shared effort, long -term vision. That is what has allowed us to get here, ”says Urcola during his speech.

Beginnings without equipment or capital

Sakana Group’s story begins to roll in 1975 When a group of neighbors from Lakuntza and adjacent municipalities decided to launch “a business project without having its own facilities or initial capital. To that limitation the economic crises that periodically affected sectors such as the machine-tool or the marine engine were added. The commitment of the partners, the support of their families and the adoption of a participatory management model allowed to overcome the difficulties of the first years” own company. “Hopefully the documentary serves to remember that the great achievements do not always come from great words, but of small repeated gestures day by day: a work shift, a meeting of partners, a difficult decision taken among many …”, said Razkin.

During the following two decades, “the Cooperative consolidated a portfolio of national and international clients that, in many cases, remains five decades later. This growth coincided with the irruption of the wind sector in the 90s. The organization then adapted its productive processes to the demanding standards of renewable energy and was positioned as a smelting of reference in Europe.” With the change of Millennium, the Society “faced the challenge of manufacturing components of greater technical and logistics dimension. To respond to demand, it launched the construction of new casting, machining and painting plants, in addition to the creation of various divisions dedicated to mechanized, painting and logistics.”

The documentary ‘Las Voces de Sakana merging dreams in Iron’ reproduces “the process of creation and consolidation of Sakana Group through personal testimonies. Among the interviewees are several of the founding partners who participated directly in the implementation of the Cooperative in the mid -1970s, as well as workers who joined in later decades and who have witnessed the technical and organizational evolution of the company. The audiovisual narrative- according to a statement from the cooperative- reviews the key stages of business development, making special emphasis on the social and economic context of the moment. Reference is made, for example, to the first meetings held in borrowed premises, to the difficulties in accessing specialized machinery and collective learning that allowed us to move towards more sophisticated productive models ”.

The production “dedicates a specific block to the process of adaptation to the requirements of the wind industry, a sector in which the cooperative was positioned from a very early phase as a strategic supplier. The transformation operated in the 2000s with the investment in new facilities is also documented, which meant a qualitative leap in productive capacity and specialization.” Finally, “it addresses the recent challenges associated with global competitiveness, energy costs and modernization processes. Through the declarations collected, a shared vision is transmitted on the importance of collective effort, territorial roots and social commitment as the vertebrate axes of the cooperative model.” “This documentary- the Vice President of the Cooperative has indicated- is a mirror of the soul of Sakana Group: a cooperative company with deep roots and wings to continue growing.”

Commemorative acts

The cooperative has announced “its intention to celebrate informative acts and commemorative acts throughout the second semester of the year to honor the founders and also disseminate the values ​​of the cooperative model on which the project is based, especially among the new generations. The commemorative program will include other activities throughout the year, including days of open doors, meetings with families and an institutional act foreseen for the last quarter”.