In a recent statement, the Corporation reaffirms the validity of the cooperative model, adding value to their contribution of society, defending the mechanisms of solidarity, and the commitment to strengthen the competitiveness of their firms. The Corporation is implementing further exceptional solidarity measures that it already started implementing in May (when the group injected 70 million euros into the cooperative Fagor), and is working to see what could be recovered and transform the current business of Fagor Electrodomésticos.
As a first Basque industrial group and tenth in the ranking of major Spanish companies, MONDRAGON confirms its commitment to entrepreneurship and employment. The Group now accounts for 3.2% of Basque GDP and 7.4 % of industrial GDP. It also provides 3.5% of total employment in the Basque Autonomous Community and 8.4% of industrial employment. Group exports accounted for 12.2% of total performing Basque companies and 10.7% of industrial investment of this region corresponding to the Corporation. Currently, Fagor activity represents 8.1% of sales of all cooperatives. MONDRAGON has currently 110 cooperatives and employs 80,321 people (42% in the Basque Country, 40% in the rest of Spain and 17% in the international market).
The Group ended the year 2012 with sales of 12,903 million euros, of which 4,004 million euros correspond to foreign sales. Commitment to research and innovation is reflected through fifteen technology centers and 2,096 researchers working in the Corporation, which invested 160 million in research, development and innovation in 2012.
The Corporation currently participates in 91 international projects related to research and development and owns 564 branches of patents. The MONDRAGON Corporation also has a series of solidarity mechanisms that strengthen each of the cooperatives once they join the group.
These mechanisms of solidarity work from the origin, and serve to support internationalisation and innovation programs of cooperatives, development of new activities, and support for cooperatives in trouble. During the last five years of crisis, cooperatives in Spain as in the rest of the world, have experienced a better performance in terms of employment than other forms of enterprise.
Cooperatives have created more than 8,000 new jobs in 2012 in Spain, many of them being worker-buyouts. The cooperative model of enterprises in Spain, employ nearly 315,000 people and generate about 5% of the GDP. The difference between a cooperative business in industry as opposed to other business models mainly lies in that, it is in this kind of situation that the greatest exercise of responsibility is proven because the pillars of the cooperative model are based on people.
You can read the full statement of the MONDRAGON Corporation here.
