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TINO Stone Group starts up its business park


The natural stone textures multinational has invested a total of 23 million euros in its ‘Asia headquarters’, made up of a stone treatment centre, a showroom, a logistics platform and offices from which the expanding activity in the Asia Pacific region will be managed.
The Spanish multinational, which specializes in the production and marketing of natural stone textures for flooring, paving and wall coverings, has just started up operations at the complex it has finished building in Zhangjiagang (Shanghai, China), which includes a production centre, showroom, logistics platform and office building. The company, which will manage its expansion into the Asia Pacific region from China, already has close to 60 professionals working at its new ‘headquarters’ – all of them locals, except for two Spaniards. The size of this staff will increase over upcoming years to the 400 jobs anticipated in the business plan.

Antonio Valdés, President of the TINO Stone Group, explains that ‘start-up of this business park in China is great news for the future of our company, which expects to obtain 30% of its future business from the Asia Pacific region. The official inauguration,’ he added, ‘will take place in June, taking advantage of the fact that in China this is the year of Spain and coinciding with a visit by a public figure.’

23 million invested in a plant which will generate 400 direct and 1,200 indirect jobs
The TINO business park in China is located some 100 kilometres from Shanghai. It has involved an overall investment of 23 million euros and is expected to create 400 direct and close to 1,200 indirect jobs. Antonio Valdés, President of TINO, argued that ‘China is the number one future market for the world with a great capacity for consumption. Establishing ourselves in this country will enable us to access other markets, such as Japan and Korea, from here.’ The company expects that by 2010 ‘Asian markets will represent between 25 and 40 percent of turnover, of which a large part will come from China.’

The president of the TINO Stone Group stated that ‘the greatest difficulty for moving into Asia, a market which we entered 16 years ago, is the culture. But, on the other hand, it has the great advantage of significant consumer potential.’ Within the plans for the company’s headquarters in China, Valdés also highlighted the creation of a school for the children of workers, which will be free and offer classes in Spanish ‘to contribute to establishing our culture throughout our surroundings.’

The project is part of the worldwide expansion plan drawn up by TINO for the 2003-2010 period. Its aim is to increase sales figures, which were 42 million euros in 2006, to some 200 million by 2010. The China project was partially financed by COFIDES, an institution which contributed 2 million euros in FIEX funds.

Antonio Valdés’s dream: a Spanish school for the children of TINO employees

The TINO production complex in China will include a school for the children of employees – to be built during the next stage of the project. The project, which was presented to Prime Minister Rodríguez Zapatero last year during his official trip to the Asian country, is one of TINO President Antonio Valdés’s most cherished wishes: ‘the school will reinforce Spanish culture, with its main aim being to include the teaching of Spanish so that the children who study there are bilingual when they complete their schooling.’

Valdés has always been a businessman who is very committed to promoting social benefits for his workers. Already in the 1980s he pioneered the inclusion of women at production centres in Andalusia, under the same working conditions as the men. With this initiative, he seeks to provide the company’s future employees in China with an advantage which will make them feel proud to work for TINO Stone Group and which reinforces their and their family’s future growth potential.

For Antonio Valdés, ‘giving back to society part of what it gives us is an obligation which we business people have to take on with enthusiasm and the greatest excitement. Our commitment within TINO’s China project is in ten years for there to be 1,000 or 2,000 people who have come out of our company knowing how to speak Spanish and who can visit our country as tourists or move here, or who can embark on an attractive international career. That would be the very greatest for us.’