Ceniceros visits the new finishing line of the Garnica factory in Fuenmayor

The President of the Government of La Rioja visited, on Tuesday 29 August, the Garnica plant in Fuenmayor, a factory where the company has recently made significant investments in order to add more value to the panel manufactured there.

During the course of this visit, José Ignacio Ceniceros highlighted “the international profile and growth of Garnica, as well as its capacity to continue growing and creating employment”. The company plans to invest 10 million euros each year in increasing production, in R + D + i and the development of value-added products, as well as improving occupational health and safety. Garnica plans to create some 500 new jobs in the next five years.

The President stressed that a small family sawmill that emerged in Baños de Río Tobía three quarters of a century ago could have become what it is today: the world´s leading company in plywood production using sustainable wood.

At the Fuenmayor plant, three million euros has been invested in a new end production line, which will increase its efficiency and the quality of its value-added products, such as varnished and painted panels. These products are mainly exported to the US, Holland, France and the United Kingdom, but the company's intention behind these investments is to promote its demand in new markets.

After this modernisation, Fuenmayor will have a new press, new forming line and digital printing line. The new finishing line will have a daily production capacity of 5,700 panels and 18,000 square metres of wood. 20 new jobs will be created at the factory.

Pedro Garnica, President of Garnica, stressed that “La Rioja was the region where the company came from and continues to represent the most important part of our business: 65% of the panel that we put on the market is produced here and more than half of our 850 employees work here”.