Experts in Broachingand Rolling Solutions

In November 1962, the founding team received permission from the Ministry of Labor and in May 1963, the municipality of Amorebieta granted permission to build on the 500-square-meter plot purchased in Gane. In the month of July three people began to work and a week after the start, two others joined. At three months there were twenty and in two years they reached the figure of 50 people forming part of ekin. In addition to the cost of the plot and the construction of the pavilion, 7 million pesetas were invested in the purchase of machinery. This was kept in the space of the old blacksmith shop located in the basement of the house of Isidoro Arana until the construction of the nave was completed. During these first years they worked also on Saturdays and Sundays and not always the salary arrived for all, so that those who did not have family responsibilities were the last to charge.

The idea of its creation dates back to 1960, when two young workers of Izar consider the idea of a business project of their own for the production of broaches and other cutting tools such as strawberries and reamers. They managed to add other Izar workers to their idea and they undertook the investment with financing conditions of 13% on the capital. At that time the cooperative movement promoted by José María Arizmendiarrieta was taking shape in Mondragón and after visiting several cooperatives decided to become a Limited Cooperative Society. For this they needed to comply with the legal requirement to get fifteen partners, each of which contributed the sum of 75,000 pesetas. This amount was the equivalent of an average home or the three-year salary of a workshop officer.

In the early years, ekin manufactured all kinds of special cutting tools in fast steel for small companies in the area. Brushes accounted for 30% of their production. In 1978 ekin had taken on the challenge of regenerating a broaching machine for the Fasa Renault plant in Valladolid. In 1980 he received a relevant commission from the Seat factory in Barcelona, which consolidated his entry into this market. Gradually and betting on the automotive industry the production of broaches was consolidated with deliveries to the automotive plants of Seville, Madrid, Vigo …

The exit to the foreign market of ekin was marked by the presence in the EMO of Paris of 1975, whose stand was attended by 16 people of ekin designated by lot. That first step already led to the presence in the fairs of Hannover, Milan and Dusseldorf. The first European customer arose in November 1976, after a commercial visit to the Ford factory in Bordeaux. It consisted in the delivery of two cylindrical broaches of 7 flutes and 1,700 mm for January 20, 1977, a deadline that was met late in the afternoon of that same day.

At the end of the 70s, the plot and the building occupied by ekin in Gane had remained small and the future conditioned to the expansion of the facilities. Thus, a plot of 26,000 square meters was acquired in Boroa and in 1980 the new building of 8,000 square meters of built floor was inaugurated, in which the design, administration and production departments were located. The Gane plant was reserved for thermal treatment work, an activity that was moved to Lemoa in 2003.

Quality and innovation have been key to the growth trajectory. In 1994, ekin was one of the first Basque industrial companies to obtain ISO 9000 certification, which has allowed it to advance in sectors such as automotive, energy generation and aeronautics.

Born in 1964, Ebay, S.A. It was a rival company in the ekin market. With the consolidation of both, they associated for the creation of the thermal treatment plant of Lemoa, Termebek. Finally, based on an idea put forward by K2K (belonging to NER Group), in 2010 Ebay joined ekin contributing its workers, machinery, technology and customers in conditions approved by the assemblies of both organizations.

In April 2011 ekin takes the step of settling for the first time on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean to approach a market as important as North America, close to 500 million inhabitants. In Querétaro (Mexico), ekin, S.A. de C.V, a company that was born with nine people and whose main activity was the sharpening of broaches and regeneration of Rotoflo racks. Its productive objective is the manufacture of short-term broaches, which will also mean the increase of the template. Additionally, ekin also acts as manager of AK Sorocaba (Brazil) within its expansion plan in the American continent market.

India is a new step for ekin. Besides being the third world economy, with more than 1.2 billion inhabitants and an annual sale of more than three million cars, India is also a platform for penetration in the Asian market. In 2009, 76% of Saluja Tools, an Indian company with more than thirty years of experience in the Tool sector, was acquired. In 2013, the process of productive and cultural change was completed and since May of that same year, 100% of the property became ekin INDIA Pvt. Ltd. The plant, which at that time gave direct work to 76 people in Delhi, is oriented to supply the demand of the Indian domestic market and also to reinforce the ekin project in the Basque Country.

In 2015, ekin joined Hegan, a cluster of aeronautics and space in the Basque Country. The business plan contemplates that in 2020 its activity in the aeronautical sector reaches more than 15% of sales, with a figure of around 5 million euros. Their perspectives of growth in this sector are based on own developments of broaching technology that allow a very remarkable reduction of the time of the process, which supposes a competitive advantage of first order in the market. In the aeronautical field, ekin has specialized in the high-precision machining of critical components of aeronautical turbines. The work for these parts of the aircraft engines has allowed the consolidation of workload for the next decade. With the current facilities, the cell has a capacity exceeding one hundred sets of broaches per year for the aeronautical sector, in which it carried out the first works at the beginning of this century for General Electric.

In 2018 ekin S. Coop obtained the ISO 14001.

With a total of five own centers in three continents (Ekin Amorebieta, Ekin Lemoa -Bizkaia-, Ekin India -Gurgaon, Haryana- and Ekin México -Querétaro-), a joint venture in Italy (Ekin CDM) -Milan-) and as manager of AK Sorocaba (Brazil), it has a total workforce of 360 workers. Its growth is both geographical and productive and its strategic sectors are those of automotive, power generation and aeronautics.