Gabriel-Chemie expands its plastics business on Iberian peninsula by opening a subsidiary in Spain

06-Jan-16

By recently founding the Gabriel-Chemie Ibérica S.L. subsidiary, the Austrian family-owned company is expanding into the Spanish, Portuguese and North African markets, and is therefore pursuing its consistent growth strategy. Spain is Europe's seventh largest plastics market with an annual consumption of approximately 2.7 million tonnes of polymers (2015). Gabriel-Chemie Ibérica is solely owned by Gabriel-Chemie Spain Holding GmbH, whose Managing Director is Ms Elisabeth Sommer. The well-connected industry expert Jose Luis Santamaria Palacios has been appointed for the operational management of Gabriel-Chemie Ibérica S.L., whose registered office is in Madrid. Together with the Sales Director, Rafael Becedas Diez, he will be responsible for developing the business in Spain, Portugal and North Africa; both managers have shares in Gabriel-Chemie Ibérica S.L. As a first step, the company will invest in a laboratory and production facilities for colour masterbatches. Over recent years, Gabriel-Chemie GmbH has successfully exported colour and additive masterbatches to countries on the Iberian Peninsula. It is hoped that opening a new sales and production subsidiary will help generate further growth in this important market. Ms Elisabeth Sommer, Managing Director of the Gabriel-Chemie Group, is delighted to see this step towards expansion: "Our growth potential in this economic area has been limited by our current structure. By having our own sales and production subsidiary, we are able to react better and faster than ever before to the market needs of Iberian industries. By building on our reputation for high quality, we believe there is great potential for us to successfully establish ourselves in this large plastics market". The Austrian plastics company already has six subsidiaries abroad and, by founding a new subsidiary in Spain, it is signalling healthy growth.