Tunnel formwork (Strength system)
Introduction
ULMA Construction is a Spanish company dedicated to the manufacturing and marketing of industrialized formwork and scaffolding systems for building, civil works and rehabilitation through rental and sales services, preparation of the technical project, and on-site advice.[1] Headquartered in Oñate (Guipúzcoa), it has an international presence in America, Asia, Africa, Europe and Oceania.[2].
ULMA Construction is the company that gave rise to the ULMA Group, which consists of 9 companies.
History
ULMA Construction was established in 1961 in Oñate (Guipúzcoa), with the name of Sociedad Cooperativa Industrial Talleres ULMA and was dedicated to the manufacturing of packaging. In 1963, it joined the construction sector and introduced the first prefabricated scaffolding to the Spanish market, called JJEIP. With the same name and during that decade, it began to manufacture extendable metal props and forklifts. In 1969, it already had branches in Zaragoza, Granada, Valencia, Seville, Toledo and Mallorca.
During the 1970s, it built its second production plant in Oñate and began its internationalization process in Portugal (where the first subsidiary was created in 1980), France, Argentina and Chile. At the end of that decade, its activity was already very focused on construction: of the 134 million pesetas invoiced by the company at that time, 119 million corresponded to this activity and the rest to other products, such as packaging.
The splitting of the cooperative into two differentiated businesses occurred between 1984 and 1985. At that time the embryos of what would become ULMA Packaging (then ULMA Maquinaria) and ULMA Construction (then ULMA Elements Metálicos) were created. A year later, the two cooperatives, together with ENARA S. Coop, formed what was called Grupo Oñalán and which, since 1992, has been known as Grupo ULMA. The great milestones of the 1990s were the international expansion with its own implementations in 1995, the purchase of the TMC company with the purpose of beginning civil works activity in 1997 and the opening in 1999 of the New Jersey subsidiary, the first to open in the United States.
Since 2000, international expansion has been consolidated with offices in Latin America and Europe. In 2005, it began selling in Africa and opened its first commercial office in Shanghai (China). That same year, the agricultural business was spun off to become an independent cooperative.