A sample piece is test-run through a CI-1500 electronic copy lathe in the Intorex factory at Sant Pere de Torello, Spain. The company relocated to its new 3,100-square-meter facility in 1995. Founded in 1982, the company has annual sales between $7 million and $8 million and exports 85 percent of its production, with 30 percent going to the United States through its distributor, Goodspeed Machinery, Winchendon, MA.

“Spain is the third largest European producer, just after Germany and Italy,” says AFEMMA Director Jose Menoyo.

Output has almost doubled in the last seven years, he adds, with exports growing 80 percent between 1994 and 1999 and the number of workers engaged in the industry increasing by 14 percent. Menoyo estimates that 25 percent of members’ equipment is exported world-wide, with the United States consistently ranking among the top three markets.

		A worker assembles a laminating machine at Barberan S.A. in Castelldefels, Spain. In addition to laminating equipment, Barberan produces profile wrapping machines, flow and curtain coaters, and curing equipment. The company moved into a new 12,000-square-meter facility about a year ago and does $20 million in annual sales. It sells its equipment in the United States through Allwood Machinery in Greensboro, NC.

Part of the impetus behind the recent advances has been vigorous demand from Spanish furniture manufacturers. The healthy furniture market also has resulted in the development and growth of companies manufacturing components. According to AFEMMA, both these markets have been striving to improve their technological capabilities in order to compete worldwide and have been demanding more high-tech woodworking equipment.

Annual Spanish furniture sales are around $7 billion, with $1.3 billion in exports, while non-furniture wood products sales are $5 billion each year. The main export markets are in Europe, although the United States imports about 4.2 percent of Spain’s production and Russia imports about 3.1 percent, according to AFEMMA.

Furnituremakers’ efforts also have spurred the creation and growth of sophisticated training centers and testing facilities. One such facility is headquartered in Valencia, one of three areas in Spain with a high concentration of furniture producers. AIDIMA is a technology institute funded in part by the government and also by 600 furniture manufacturer members. It conducts research, collects statistics, certifies products for quality, and trains woodworkers in advanced areas like CAD and CNC.

“The vigorous development of the Spanish woodworking machinery and furniture industries in the last five years has been the driving force behind Spanish competitiveness all over the world,” Menoyo says.

For more information about the Spanish woodworking industry or equipment manufacturers, contact AFEMMA in Valencia, Spain, via e-mail to [email protected] or visit its Web site: www.afemma.com.