Pardo, Rigual and Salesianos de La Almunia, 2021 Business Excellence Awards
Industrias Hidráulicas Pardo won the IAF Business Excellence Award this Tuesday in the large company category at a gala full of guests held at the Palacio de Congresos in person, in which they have also been winners Rigual in the SME category and the Salesiano Laviaga-Castillo de La Almunia school in the non-profit organization category.
In a ceremony that was much warmer and very different from that of November 18, 2020, "tremendously sad and with an empty room" in which, due to the pandemic, only 14 people were physically present "the team led by Pilar Molinero and myself same cold ice cream", recalled Arturo Aliaga, "we have celebrated the 25th anniversary of some awards that demonstrate the "robustness and strength of the Aragonese companies", since he specified, of the award-winning companies only "we have lost three companies".
"With 25 years of business excellence we can feel proud", he said and thanked the 140 companies that have attended the XXV edition of these awards for their commitment to that "long road that is excellence", as well as the effort of those that were considered "essential" and the "others too" for having made a return to normality possible after the hard times of the pandemic marked by the ERTE and the ICO credits. Thanking his tenacity, he had emotional words for the winner, Pardo, when he recalled his stay "two months in a hospital in a Pardo bed" for what he said he knew well, what innovation and technology are in an industry, which had to support in 2011 during the previous crisis "We were also there at a time when beds and buses were not being bought because the economy was squalid," he said.
De Rigual, Aliaga applauded the way in which "they have known how to fight and overcome difficulties" and the evolution they have had from cars to tractors guided by GPS.
Walk him to the bank and show him how to open a savings account lol 😂 https://t.co/jEyuQZl4pl
— Commentator Fri Feb 28 01:57:59 +0000 2020
"The path to excellence cannot be done alone," said Juan Ramón Sánchez Tabuenca, CEO of Rigual, when collecting the award in the SME category. "I always thought that we could present ourselves although the difficulties were not few or small", he indicated, while thanking the support of the IAF and the Aragonese Government for having been able to get here, as well as customers, suppliers and the people who declared, " are the most important asset" of the company with 119 workers that will turn 65 in 2022, which exports to 20 countries and invoices 15 million.
"More than seven years ago we began in excellence and apparently we made the right decision," said Daniel Álvarez Palomero, general director of Industrias Hidráulicas Pardo, and who recognized the effort of the staff of 100 workers , to "overcome those difficult years of 2011 and 2012 in which investment fell and the company, hand in hand with Pikolin, had to reinvent itself and internationalize preparing itself for the moment". A journey that, he recalled, has allowed them to invoice 22 million, export to 50 countries and take Aragonese health products to the five continents "having produced more than 22,000 beds to serve 70 Spanish hospitals and other parts of the world".
Angel Gil Diez, director of the Colegio Salesianos de La Almunia, thanked that for the first time the work of a project that was born in 1956 when the Laveaga Castillo couple ceded the land where the education of so many boys and girls has been founded and adolescents and I take advantage of the occasion to value the teaching and training work.
Strengthening the industrial fabric
"Difficult times are coming," said Aliaga at the closing of the gala, alluding to the escalation in the price of energy, the shortage of raw materials or the problems with freight. But "if your lordships in the Cortes approve the budget of 7,444 million euros, there will be items that will result in purchases for the public sector. We cannot put obstacles," he asked the parliamentary groups present at the gala, not to mention many Weaknesses we had when there were no gowns, masks, or vaccines. "That must not be forgotten," he warned, and t continue supporting Aragonese companies. "European funds are coming. We already manage 40 million for the digitization of SMEs, and in energy issues, brutal lines will arrive from the Ministries. We are pending the PERTE of the agri-food, health and automotive sector and we must ensure that the projects of the companies of Aragon are valued", he stated.
The fun part of the gala was dealt with by the businessman and consultant Emilio Duró who reminded businessmen in his talk 'It's not worth giving up' that happy people yield more and that the only thing that gives happiness is what costs".