Iñigo Urkullu presides over the laying of the foundation stone of Sener’s new facilities on the Zamudio/Derio Campus of the Euskadi Technology Park, focused on the aerospace market

The Lehendakari of the Basque Government, Iñigo Urkullu, presided over the ceremony to lay the first stone of the engineering and technology group’s new facilities, which was also attended by the Mayor of Zamudio, Lander Aretxabaleta, accompanied by the President of Sener, Andrés Sendagorta, and the CEO of the group, Jorge Sendagorta.

With an initial investment of more than 25 million euros, the first phase of the project includes 8,000 square metre facilities dedicated to industrial production and engineering services for the aerospace market, which will employ more than 300 highly qualified professionals over the next few years, 100 of these positions will be newly created.

Iñigo Urkullu, Lehendakari of the Basque Government, presided over the ceremony to lay the first stone of the new facilities of the Sener engineering and technology group on the Zamudio/Derio Campus of the Euskadi Technology Park, in Bizkaia. The ceremony was attended, in addition to the Lehendakari, by Elixabete Etxanobe, Deputy General of Bizkaia; Lander Aretxabaleta, Mayor of Zamudio; Arantxa Tapia, Minister of Economic Development, Sustainability and Environment of the Basque Government; Andrés Sendagorta, President of Sener; and Jorge Sendagorta, CEO of Sener, as well as various representatives of the industrial, economic and educational fabric of the aerospace sector in the Basque Country.

The new facilities will house an industrial production and engineering services centre for the aerospace market, in which Sener has experienced significant growth in recent years. More specifically, it will focus on the development and production of aerospace technologies: electromechanical, pointing and precision, optomechanical, actuation and robotic systems. Such systems are essential for the development of commercial, scientific, exploration and defence projects.

The first phase of the project contemplates an initial investment of more than 25 million euros for a surface area of 8,000 m2, although the building will be located on a plot of 30,000 m2, which will allow Sener’s future growth in the aerospace market and in other sectors to be accompanied. Of these 8,000 m2, 4,000 m2 will be dedicated to industrial production (1,200 to clean rooms, rooms specially designed to obtain low levels of contamination; 400 to space environment simulation facilities; 1,600 to assembly and test areas; and 800 to production engineering). Over the next few years, the centre is expected to employ more than 300 highly qualified professionals, 100 of whom will fill newly created jobs. Following the start of construction, scheduled for December this year, the facility is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2025.

The building is being developed by Sener’s team of architects, who have designed a sustainable, energy-efficient, unique and modern facility that will allow its technicians to grow and develop their capabilities as part of a world reference in the fields of space and science.

The main motivation for the opening is Sener’s desire to expand and concentrate its production capabilities for the aerospace market. The centre, in addition to providing its professionals with highly specialised facilities, will be located in a site that brings together companies and organisations from the sector, many of which are currently partners or suppliers of the group.

Sener’s expansion in the aerospace market

The decision was made possible thanks to Sener’s growth in the aerospace market, which has experienced a positive evolution in recent years thanks to both organic and inorganic growth. The company allocates 12% of the area’s annual revenues to R&D and, in 2018, it acquired Tryo, a company focused on the development of communication systems for space, to complement its capabilities. More recently, Sener announced the opening of a new high-performance technology centre in Santander, focused on the design and development of electronic and radio frequency components and subsystems for space and defence antennas.

In the aerospace market, Sener has 1,000 highly qualified professionals, out of a total of more than 3,400 people worldwide, distributed in offices in 21 countries, in this and other markets, such as defence, energy, mobility, advanced facilities for data centres, digital and naval (as well as promoting, through industrial participations, companies in the renewable energy sector). Of the approximately 600 Sener employees in the Basque Country, 180 are currently dedicated to the aerospace sector, a figure that is expected to reach 300 people in the coming years, incorporating engineering staff and production technicians.

Among the most outstanding recent projects in the aerospace sector are the participation in the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid mission (to study the energy and dark matter of the universe); the JUICE mission, also of the ESA (to explore Jupiter and its icy moons Ganymede, Europa and Callisto) or the participation in the Rover Perseverance, of the Mars 2020 mission of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. ESA’s Proba-3 mission also stands out, which is scheduled to be launched in 2024 and will be the first mission of the European agency to be developed entirely by a Spanish company.

Iñigo Urkullu, Lehendakari of the Basque Government, said: “We are grateful for Sener’s initiative and its investment. It is a step forward that, looking to the future, will contribute to improving our quality of life. We support and back this entrepreneurial attitude, of which Sener is an example and a benchmark. This first stone will undoubtedly serve to give continuity to a dream that began years ago”.

Jorge Sendagorta, CEO of Sener, underlined that “the world is increasingly demanding more connectivity, more earth observation, more scientific and exploration missions. As a result, our projects are becoming more sophisticated, larger and more demanding (…) We want Bizkaia to be an industrial production hub for Sener in aerospace technologies. The facilities we are going to build in Zamudio will be a specialised centre, with all the necessary characteristics to develop our activity and take it to the next level (…) With this investment in Bizkaia, we hope to provide a service to Basque society by doing our bit to generate employment, wealth, knowledge and progress”.

Lander Aretxabaleta, Mayor of Zamudio, declared: “The Zamudio Town Council welcomes you and thanks you for the trust you have placed in us. You can count on our commitment to support a development that will allow our region to continue to grow, as well as creating quality employment”.

For his part, the Chairman of Sener, Andrés Sendagorta, stressed that “Sener was founded in 1956, as a small naval engineering company in Ercilla Street in Bilbao (…) Since those beginnings in 1956, in addition to the head office, Sener’s commitment to the Basque Country has been permanent. Sener has been an essential player, and in some cases a driving force, in some of the major projects that have transformed the Basque Country. All of Sener’s aerospace and defence activity is growing at a fast pace and urgently requires new facilities. We have several suitable alternatives. Of all of them, we are opting for the Basque Country and specifically for this Technology Park”.