Metal carpentry in Alcalá la Real

Our beginnings

At the beginning of our company, Metalúrgica San José Artesano, we worked together, just as we have done until today. Learn a little more about our foundation:

Faced with a very unfavorable economic situation, in 1964, a group of self-employed workers, dedicated to forging and metal carpentry, decided to form a production and artisan cooperative.

At first we had very few things: traditional tools from various workshops, hard work and the good will of simple workers. We began to think about the possibility of having an industrial building that would allow for a corporate headquarters, warehouse and other facilities; in the meantime, we operated with various private workshops that were made available for common use.

We drafted some statutes and then appointed a governing board, made up of the following members:

• President: Francisco Rueda Valverde.
• Vice President: Fco. Doroteo Hidalgo Pérez.
• Secretary: Antonio Perez Montoya.
• Treasurer: Jose Gonzalez Galvez.
• Vocals: Florentin Montoya Cano and Demetrio Alamedas Gonzalez.

The rest of the founding members were:



• Juan Montoya Cano.
• Leoncio Castillo Martin.
• Rafael Gonzalez Galvez.
• Francisco Doroteo Hidalgo Perez (son).
• Antonio Armenteros Exposito.
• Antonio Sanchez Martinez.
• Cecilio Armenteros Stop.
• Manuel Alamedas Gonzalez.

That project needed financing, so we applied for various loans from banking institutions: one hundred thousand pesetas from Caja Rural and one hundred and fifty thousand from Banco Español de Crédito, with the partners themselves guaranteeing the applications.

The Ministry of Labor agreed to the request and on February 10, 1965, the official approval of our cooperative society was published in the Official State Gazette, registered under number 12,152.

We began our official journey by making our way into the metallurgical market. Orders increased and went beyond the local area. The financial results that first year were positive, we paid off some debts and made investments in machinery (constant in the history of our cooperative). In addition, part of the profits were allocated to social projects.

In this first year of life, our cooperative has its first facilities: a small warehouse on the Montefrío road.

In 1968, the Jaén City Council awarded us our first prize, during a competition held at the San Lucas fair.

In 1969 we made new plans: allocating funds for cultural and professional training, the need to acquire books in order to create a small, specific technical library to support the staff in charge of the projects, and scheduling visits to other cooperatives in the metallurgical sector, the most experienced ones, in other parts of Spain. In addition, that year we inaugurated new facilities.

In subsequent years we had constant changes and modifications in the organization of our cooperative, we expanded our facilities, acquired new projects and objectives, and continued to make investments.

In 1989 our company joined the Federation of Andalusian Cooperatives (FUCA). It was a good time for us. We had a lot of work to do and we had to do it, so we had to hire workers from outside the company.

In 1994 we became part of the Andalusian Federation of Associated Work Cooperative Companies (FAECTA).

In 1998 we began construction work on the new facilities: around six thousand square meters for workshops, warehouses, offices and other spaces. These were inaugurated in May 2000.

As has happened with the physical space, throughout these years of life, at Metalúrgica San José Artesano we have also seen how our range of activities has expanded, today covering everything from repair to the construction of industrial machinery for rubber, plastic and others, as well as metal carpentry, the assembly of metal structures and installations, boilermaking and artistic locksmithing.

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