Ambitious sales target of HEROSE Iberica

Spain is starting to emerge from the longstanding economic crisis. “The cafés here in Barcelona are full of guests – and now you even have to reserve a table in the restaurants again when you want to go out for a meal”, said Javier Gorriz, managing director of HEROSE Iberica. The upswing can also be noticed at the Spanish subsidiary – in terms of figures. Last year we had a turnover of 2.6 million Euro, in 2017 we aim to achieve 2.9 million Euro”, said Mr. Gorriz.

The team in Barcelona: portrays of the employees, and where the best chances for development can be seen

HEROSE Iberica has 140 regular customers.

Carrer Entença 332 in the centre of Barcelona. The office of HEROSE Iberica is here on the 8th floor. Next to Mr. Gorriz, three full-time and two part-time employees are working on the success story of HEROSE Iberica. We have another colleague in Madrid and a new employee that looks after the Portuguese market from Lisbon. “As a whole, we supply about 140 customers”, said Mr. Gorriz. Their geographic distribution corresponds with the different economic strength of the country. “70 % of them have their main offices on the eastern cost of Spain, between Barcelona and Valencia. Another main focus is Madrid, and in 2018 we want to place north and south Spain in the focus of our efforts.” Our goal is to employ at least one sales manager in each region.
With 90   %, the cryogenic area accounts for the largest share of sales. With air gases, the larger customers of the industry are HEROSE customers, also in Spain: from Linde / Praxair over Air Liquid up to Air Products and Messer. Mr. Gorriz considers the largest potential with LNG: „Iberian Peninsula is the pioneer in Europe in this sector. LNG contributes to 50 % of the gas consumption.“ The reason for this is the almost non-existing pipeline network in the country. LNG, originating primarily from the Middle East, is landed in eight Iberian ports and then transported to more than 1,000 satellite stations on the Iberian peninsula using trailers. Mr. Gorriz: „Here and on the trailers, we see great chances for the small scale fittings from HEROSE. This also applies for the further expansion of the Blue Corridors here in Spain.“ A total of 15 LNG filling stations are planned on the Iberian peninsula.

Javier Gorriz, 46 years of age, began as freelance employee for HEROSE in 2011. He already had contact as Product Manager in the field for safety valves at the Spanish office of Spirax Sarco, a globally active company for steam and condensate technology. Spirax Sarco represented HEROSE in Spain then. On the initiative of Mr. Gorriz, Spirax Sarco had also included fittings for the cryogenic temperature range in his catalogue and could recently increase turnover to 1.8 million Euro.

Next to Javier Gorriz, other employees are also working for HEROSE Iberica in Barcelona:
Marina Osorio: she has been working full-time for HEROSE since 2012 and mainly deals with order processing and the coordination in logistics. Plays tennis and likes skiing.
Inés Viladomiu: assistant of Marina Osorio, part-time since 2017.
Carles Pruna: accounting, also part time and is a member of the team since 2017. Plays basketball, runs marathons.
Xavier Greoles: the full time engineer spends three quarter of his time on the phone and primarily helps customers with project queries. At HEROSE since March 2015. Likes to ride his bicycle and swim whenever possible.
Laia Barón: a member of the team as full time product manager since 2015. Loves hiking and climbing.

The team of HEROSE Iberica has ambitious targets: “We want to increase our turnover by at least 10 % each year“, said Javier Gorriz – and knows that a good work atmosphere also contributes to this decisively. And for this reason, we all go to lunch together at least once a week. “We try to be a big family.“

Spain is the LNG pioneer in Europe

Paying a visit to two HEROSE customers in the greater Barcelona are: at CMC Cerezuela and the HAM-Group in Abrera who are mainly supplied with shut-off valves (actuated in some cases), gate valves with actuator and safety valves by HEROSE from Bad Oldesloe.

CMC Cerezuela in Tarragona is a family run company with 45 employees, was founded in 1980 and has specialised in the production of trailers. Managing Director Sergio Cerezuela Carillo: “In cooperation with the Chinese tank manufacturer Furuise, we have also been producing LNG trailers since 2015.”

This year, CMC will be supplying about 125 trailers, twelve of them for LNG. We enjoy working together with HEROSE as supplier, “As the quality and delivery reliability is as it should be”, said Dani Cerezuela Carillo.
The HAM Group looks after LNG satellite systems and LNG filling stations with 200 employees in Spain. Currently, using their own monitoring system, more than 200 systems are monitored around the clock which allows a prompt response in event of fault conditions. In Europe, HAM has already built about 30 LNG filling stations, 15 of these are in Spain, one directly next to the factory hall.
HEROSE belongs to the supplier base of HAM for many years and both want to continue growing in a very promising market: as Spain is the LNG pioneer in Europe.

Fotos: HEROSE Iberica (at the top), Carsten Wurr