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Abstract
The need for European reindustrialisation has boosted the debate on regional path creation. Through a business case approach, this work contributes to this literature by exploring the history of Daniel Alonso Group, a paradigmatic example of an entire sectorial trajectory. Born in the steelmaking region of Asturias (Spain) in 1957 as a small metalworking workshop, DAG is nowadays represented worldwide by Windar Renovables, a top firm in the wind power sector. DAG reflects the 3-stage cumulative process that allowed the Asturian metalworking sector to survive industrial restructuring and create new development paths: (1) birth around the steelmaking industry, (2) endogenous growth based on self-reinforcing dynamics (3) delocking, diversification, and international expansion moving towards Industry 4.0.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Daniel Alonso for sharing his story, and Orlando Alonso for kindly providing me access to Daniel Alonso Group and supporting this research. I also thank those who participated in interviews, meetings, or provided me with documents, and Mauro Arias for accompanying me throughout the process. I gratefully acknowledge Professors Jordi Catalan, Marc Prat, Joaquín Ocampo, Miquel Gutiérrez, Tomás Fernández de Sevilla, Yolanda Blasco, Adoración Álvaro, Daniel Tirado, Alfonso Díez, Andrea Colli, Veronica Binda, Andrew Popp, the participants in the XIII International Congress of the AEHE, the 2022 EBHA Conference, the Ramon Carande Seminar at the University of Seville, and two anonymous reviewers. Their comments have significantly improved this work. The remaining errors are my own.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Notes
1 Three of the principle reports on this topic published by the European Commission are Towards knowledge-driven reindustrialization, For a European industrial renaissance and Masterplan for a competitive transformation of EU energy-intensive industries. Main guidelines in European Industrial Strategy 2050.
2 For more detail on historical 5Cs see Andrews and Burke (Citation2007).
3 Built on Schumpeter (Citation2000).
4 Bilgili et al. (Citation2011). A comprehensive view in WindEurope, Wind energy in Europe.
5 Although this theoretical framework is out of scope, this paper can also contribute to questions concerning family firm internationalization. DAG is a family business that became a world benchmark in a very high-added-value market niche, partly thanks to the skills accumulated in a highly specialized industrial environment. A comprehensive characterization of family firms as international companies in Lubinski et al. (Citation2013). Recent research on the influence of their environment, their professionalization degree and their specialization in Eddleston et al. (Citation2019) and Hennart et al. (Citation2019).
6 INE (National Institute of Statistics), Indicadores Urbanos 2021.
7 Ensidesa, annual report (1950). The report highlights how the aforementioned characteristics were decisive in establishing the factory in Avilés.
8 Superior Council of Industry. Province of Oviedo, Annual Report (1954), pp. 237-238.
9 NEI (Netherlands Economic Institute) and SADEI (1968), La industria siderometalúrgica en Asturias.
10 Own elaboration using data from IDEPA (Economic Development Agency of the Principality of Asturias).
11 But not only, as Asturian industry was also concentrated in the city of Gijón, in the vicinity of Oviedo and in the Nalón and Caudal mining basins. All of them function today as a large metropolitan area in which locates most of the Asturian industrial network.
12 In the Spanish context, the creation of Ensidesa broke the bottleneck generated by the steel shortage during the post-war autarchy. Additionally, after the 1959 Stabilization Plan, the demand for manufactured goods in the country increased significantly (Catalan, Citation1995, Citation2002).
13 The bulk of this paragraphs comes from an interview with Daniel Alonso, February 2022. This information is contrasted with numerous statements made in the press over the years and by José María Urbano, a local journalist specialized in economics.
14 Restrictions on new industries initiated by Law on the Organization and Defense of National Industry (21/11/1939) partly explain this informality, which led to the profiling of small workshops operating outside the law and accessing raw materials through unregulated channels (Pires, Citation2005). A rich example from the firm perspective in (Catalan, Citation2006).
15 El Comercio, 09/13/1981. An article published in LNE 02/22/1997 also references Talleres Dani, operating in the first 1960s.
16 Talleres Daniel Alonso Rodríguez and Danima articles of association, Trade Register of the Principality of Asturias.
17 A deep debate exists on the relation of the business sphere and the Francoist regime (e.g. Fernandez-Moya & Puig, Citation2021; Toboso, Citation2007). Personal networks and institutional influence facilitated the concession of licenses to important businessmen and certain companies even when their proposals that were not competitive.
18 Daniel Alonso, same interview.
19 Daniel Alonso, same interview, contrasted by information provided by José María Urbano, interviewed April 2021.
20 Dates and core activity as covered on the articles of association, Trade Register of the Principality of Asturias.
21 Documents on historical workforce provided by HR.
22 Prominent public institutuions were the Universidad Laboral de Gijón (1956) and the Escuela de Maestría Industrial Juan Antonio Suanzes de Avilés (1955), but many other were linked to the companies themselves, such as the apprenticeship school of the mentioned Ensidesa (1954) and Cristalería Española (1959).
23 Ensidesa annual reports 1951-1958. The ongoing involvement of these foreign companies in Ensidesa’s factories throughout the 1960s and 1970s can be tracked through the minutes of the board meetings.
24 Daorje articles of association, Trade Register of the Principality of Asturias.
25 Aplacansa articles of association, Trade Register of the Principality of Asturias.
26 More information available in www.marrel.com.
27 Danima Marrel articles of association, Trade Register of the Principality of Asturias.
28 El Comercio, 09/29/1984.
29 El Comercio 06/06/1989.
30 Danima register files, Trade Register of the Principality of Asturias.
31 Daorje and Danigal register files, Trade Register of the Principality of Asturias. Some examples of Daorje Medioambiental activity and projects in El Comercio 10/01//2000. The award of the “SIGRE” contract to Danigal in https://docplayer.es/22067643-Recogida-transporte-seleccion-clasificacion-y-valorizacion-de-residuos-farmaceuticos.html.
32 Founded in 1944 by the Francoist regime and privatized in 1998, Endesa is nowadays one of the three leading energy companies in Spain. The relation with DAG was detailed by Daniel Alonso, interview February 2022, and completed with El Comercio 10/20/2015.
33 El Comercio, 06/15/1985 & 08/03/1985.
34 Some projects detailed in El comercio, 11/02/1988, 06/06/1989, 11/11/1989 & 11/17/1990. It is worth noting that in the early 1990s, Danima opened a new business line at the Spanish level, working for the army through the IVECO-PEGASO truck company. These projects opened the door to the small division of mechanized components for civil works developed in the future. Details in LNE, 06/06/1991 & 01/24/1996.
35 El Comercio, 13/09/1981 & 13/12/1993.To the original figures in dollars it is applicated the exchange rate of January 1980. Bank of Spain, Tipos de cambio de la peseta frente a las monedas más relevantes (1959-1998).
36 Concrete projects in El Comercio, 01/12/1988 & 09/19/1990.
37 The common market would present a double-edged sword for Asturian companies, as documented in Ministry of Industry and Energy (1983), Libro blanco de la reindustrialización and later expanded in (Castells et al., Citation1994).
38 CSI (2001), Plan de competitividad de Ensidesa y Altos Hornos de Vizcaya.
39 Minutes of Ensidesa’s board of directors nº 484,489,498 & 500 (1990-1991). Also letters and communications by Ensidesa with Banco Herrero and INI to request credit for the total ammount of the contract, which was conceded. Dated 09/28/1990, 09/25/1990 & 10/10/1990.
40 LNE 11/07/1992.
41 El Comercio, 05/10/1993. This type of operation, which became commonplace over the years, blurs the real dimension of Daorje.
42 E.g. In 1998, Aceralia approved the creation of a new galvanizing line at the Avilés factory, of which Daorje was one of the concessionaires. In 2001 it awarded Daorje the construction of a waste treatment plant for the coke battery with an estimated investment of 300M pesetas. El Comercio, 01/20/2000 and LNE, 08/16/2001 respectively.
43 LNE, 03/14/1999. Alonso also declared that the existence of diverse multinational in the district increased the potential of smaller companies.
44 International Iron & Steel Institute, Steel Statistical yearbook, 2000-2007.
45 Interview with Guillermo Ulacia, April 2021. Among other positions, Ulacia was Chief Operating Officer of CSI, Vice President of Aceralia and Arcelor, and Executive Chairman of Gamesa.
46 Guillermo Ulacia, November 2022.
47 3i Group Media Centre 07/04/2006 https://www.3i.com/media-centre/corporate-and-portfolio-news/2006/gamesa-reaches-an-agreement-with-3i-to-invest-in-its-advanced-services-company/; Cinco Días (El País) same date https://cincodias.elpais.com/cincodias/2006/04/07/empresas/1144417180_850215.html.
48 José Luis Cardiñanos, May 2021. Cardiñanos is Daorje’s current Sales Manager for the Industrial Division and worked for the company before its sale.
49 Orlando Alonso, August 2022, Mergr M&A Deal Summary ttps://mergr.com/3i-private-equity-acquires-daorje-grupo and LNE, 05/08/2007. https://www.lne.es/economia/2007/08/05/daniel-alonso-vende-parte-grupo-21850945.html.
50 Commission Communication January the 10th 2007, Renewable Energy Road Map; European Wind Energy Association, EU Energy Policy to 2050. The Great Recession compromised many of these objectives, severely contracting investments.
51 Guillermo Ulacia, April 2021.
52 El Comercio, 04/08/2000 and LNE, 07/01/2001. In addition, DAG was in charge of the assembly of the first wind farm of Asturias, created in 2001, as reported in El Comercio 04/01/2001.
53 Orlando Alonso, August 2022; El Comercio, 01/14/2007.
54 Guillermo Ulacia, November 2021 and April 2022; Orlando Alonso, August 2022 and Gamesa Annual Reports, 2007-2010.
55 Orlando Alonso, August 2022; Guillermo Ulacia, April 2021 and El Comercio, 06/22/2008.
56 Corporate dossiers and presentations provided by DAG. Concurrently, Tadarsa keep producing capital goods, machinery, and industrial metallic structures.
57 Idem.
58 José María Urbano, April 2021 and LNE, 14/03/2015. https://www.lne.es/aviles/2015/03/14/daniel-alonso-entrega-cuatro-hijos-19845233.html.
59 Orkestra, Análisis de la cadena de valor de la industria eólica vasca: oportunidades y ámbitos de mejora and Windar dossiers.
60 Orlando Alonso, August 2022.
61 India’s potential for wind power growth and the industrial importance of Gujarat are analyzed by the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX) in El mercado de la energía eólica en India (2019). The report goes back to information included in the Indian Wind Atlas-2015.
62 Orlando Alonso, August 2022. Market share from DAG dossiers and GWEC, Supply Side Analysis 2019 estimating usual 4-section towers.
63 WindEurope, Offshore wind in EU. The text refers to Directive 2014/89/EU. The 16 mantioned countries as assessed by WindEurope are Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Greece, Italy, Spain and Bulgaria.
64 The last paragraphs’ information and data come from Orlando Alonso, August 2022, and different dossiers provided by Windar. For more information on Steel Block, see http://steelblock.es/(English version).
65 Corporate dossiers from WTech and LNE, 05/04/2023.