We are working hard to recover our production in the shortest possible time.
Our company has its production center in Albal, one of the towns near Valencia where the waters came with fury last Tuesday. Forty workers were trapped in the plant, but fortunately they were rescued the following day. And they also left enormous losses in our facilities. But there is no time for regrets. Inside the factory, a highly involved workforce has been working since the authorities allowed us access to the area. The goal is to recover production as soon as possible so that our customers can continue to count on the committed production.
Last Tuesday was a very long night for everyone. For the workers who were isolated in the plant and for the management team, who had to watch out for their safety until they were rescued the following morning.
Fortunately, there were no personal injuries. But the material damage was extensive. The water mark reached a height of 1.70 m on the walls, removed machinery and equipment and left a terrible trail of mud that covered from the production area to the metrology section where our precision equipment was installed.
But in I. Alegre there has not been a moment for regrets.
Working from minute one to get things back to normal.
Once the trapped personnel had been rescued, the management team set to work to plan and coordinate the company's recovery, aware that production cannot stop for many days and that supplies to our customers must be restored.
The rest of the staff also got down to work. As soon as the authorities gave access to the industrial area of Albal, the clean-up work began, which is being carried out exclusively by I. Alegre's team, with no help from the authorities. “They are people who live in the area and have seen their own homes flooded, they are the same people who were trapped the first night, people who have been left without their vehicle and who have organized to come,” explains Enrique Careaga, CEO of the company. “To all these people I want to personally thank them for their involvement.”
Maintaining the area's important productive fabric
And the fact is that this workforce is as aware of the demands of the automotive sector as it is of the importance of this industry for the entire Autonomous Community. And each and every one of the people who make it up is willing to recover the pace as soon as possible because.
As the CEO of the company says: “what is at stake is much more than the viability of a company or a few jobs: it is the productive fabric of the region”.
After more than seven decades of existence, I. Alegre has experienced crises of great magnitude. Alegre has experienced all kinds of crises and, in each one of them, the human team has been able to pick itself up and take note of many lessons learned. This time too, the company is going to get back on its feet. We can count on their courage and the enthusiasm provided by the many innovation projects that the company has underway.
And the fact is that, at a time marked by the transition to electric mobility, I. Alegre was launching new materials, new technologies and various value propositions for the future of the motor industry. “None of that should be lost,” says Careaga. That's why the entire company is scrambling to get back on track.
