For the second year running we have received the thumbs up from Spain’s central government, meaning that we can continue with “Azteca Ecoeficiente”, our energy saving program which is designed to increase the productivity and competitiveness of our production plant in l’Alcora. Placing importance on future R+D+I has meant setting up a new project which is valued at 1.5 million Euros.
Our work has once again been rewarded. The research, development and innovation projects that we put forward for the 2011 fiscal year, under the title of “Azteca Ecoeficiente”, have been approved by the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Commerce. Confidence in our results and in the viability of the company that certifies our projections for the future, which is fully involved in the planning and development of projects that will be applied to our production facilities in l’Alcora.
The news has just been confirmed by Spain’s central government, which announced that they have granted a subsidy, in the form of a “soft” long term loan, of over a million Euros as part of their line of subsidies directed towards promoting competitiveness in strategic industrial sectors in 2011, according to Order ITC/3108/2010, of the 26th November.
And so our efforts to improve productivity and competitivity in our industrial business by applying criteria of co-efficiency and sustainability, as well as developing new ranges of products which extend and diversify the use of ceramic materials, which we have been working on in recent years, and which remains a current issue of importance, have been rewarded. The projects that will be undertaken at the factory in l’Alcora have received investments to cover a global budget of over 1.5 million Euros.
A NEW STEP FORWARD
The validity of the results of our work is also guaranteed by the fact that for the second year running the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Commerce is supporting our research and eco-efficiency projects, despite there having been many more companies applying for support from the Ministry this year. In fact, the “Azteca Ecoeficiente” project is a natural step forward from the projects that were set up in 2010, whose global budget came to over 3 million Euros.
The 2010 program included four lines of action. The guidelines for each of the subprograms focussed on increasing sustainability, saving energy, launching new types of products and adapting processes to the new product requirements, all of which were set in motion by the production plant in l’Alcora.
The investments for 2011 mean that we can set up two subprojects that centre on new guidelines covering areas such as redesign and restructuring the functions and energy use in different stages of the production process. The aim of these changes will be to achieve greater productivity and competitiveness by applying eco-efficient criteria. The budget for these two projects will allow for investments in material assets, research into raw and auxiliary materials, the subcontracting of services and the hard work that our human resource teams will be involved in.
