Spanish industrial component injection moulder Array Plàstics SL. has planted a €2.15m footprint in North America with the completion of its new plant in central Mexico.
Barcelona-based Array, which mainly moulds a range of exterior and interior vehicle parts for the automotive sector, is set to inaugurate the facility later this month in the industrial zone of the city of Querétaro.
The Catalan company established a local subsidiary, Array Products SA de CV. with €1.5m backing from Spain’s state-run public-private development finance agency COFIDES to serve customers already operating in Mexico.
COFIDES finance was provided from a special fund designed to aid international projects by small and medium sized Spanish enterprises.
Plant capacity in Mexico will be sufficient to meet current demand and allow for further business growth in what is a dynamic regional market in automotive. Future growth for Array “could entail expansion into one of the countries critically important to the automotive sector”, according to COFIDES.
Array Plàstics, formed in Folgueroles, north of Barcelona in 1992, runs 29 injection machines turning out parts assemblies like interior and exterior indicator lights, courtesy lights, engine parts and internal roof and mirror components.
Its managing director Guerau Carné stressed the strategic importance of the company’s new offshoot.
“The new Mexican affiliate makes it possible for us to put a foot into one of the most dynamic markets for automobile parts, and one with (the greatest future), while it provides access to global projects that will also favour the matrix,” he explained.
“We want to transfer to Mexico our whole (‘Industry’) 4.0 production system, visual quality control and quality control management methodology right from the start in order to meet the needs of our demanding automotive clients,” the executive added.
The Mexican project includes a “commitment to sustainability” with Array including in the plant a new water-cooling system for machinery and moulds along with an ‘adiabatic’ refrigerator for injection machines, COFIDES reports.
Array Plàstics is part of an industrial group, along with a sister electronics firm Elausa, also located near Barcelona, dedicated to the manufacture of electromechanical auto industry components.
With a workforce of around 125, Array Plàstics recorded annual sales of €16.9m during 2018. Its main operation includes two production centres covering an area of 5,800m2