BlogCompanyNews

15 Years of Hargassner Iberica

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of Hargassner Iberica, let us look at the past years and the unique features of the Spanish market.

Vamos!

A promising market

In 2008, Hargassner ventured into the Iberian Peninsula. A year in which Spain experienced a drastic economic recession. The result was a deep economic crisis. In addition, Hargassner Iberica faced the challenge that biomass was hardly known on the Iberian Peninsula. Very few people understood anything about pellets and wood chips. Installers also had little knowledge of the specifics of biomass heating systems and their maintenance. Hargassner Iberica was therefore faced with major challenges that could only be overcome with a lot of hard work and clever measures within the industry. The results are there, as the company is celebrating its 15th anniversary in Spain this year – a success it can be proud of.

Hargassner Iberica’s first home was in the north of Spain, in Langreo. It later moved to nearby Llanera in Asturias, where it is still based today. For those unfamiliar with the area, this is roughly halfway between Bilbao and Santiago de Compostela, very close to the northern Spanish coast of the Bay of Biscay.

Hargassber Iberica Standort Llanera in Austurien | Hargassner

Ay, caramba!

The great challenge of the start-up phase

In order to introduce the technology to the market and build up competence, a lot of know-how had to be acquired in the professional sector, both in terms of the general biomass value chain in addition to the knowledge and skills of installers.
Besides selling the biomass boilers, one of the main tasks was and still is to train installers and engineers. A separate area in the Hargassner Iberica warehouse was converted into a training room. Since then, the Spanish colleagues have trained countless partners. This has made it possible to build up and guarantee a competent service throughout the country.

This is a remarkable achievement, given that the Iberian Peninsula covers a total area of 582,000 km². This is more than seven times the size of Austria. The customer service therefore has to cover many kilometres in order to provide the top service for which Hargassner is known in Austria and Germany.

Hargassner Iberica meets this challenge with flying colours; it is not for nothing that 43 % of boilers in Spain have a maintenance contract with Hargassner.

Bravo!

Olives & Regional Value

One of Hargassner’s brand values is to support the local economy wherever it operates. In Spain, this is achieved by using waste from the agri-food industry, such as walnut shells and, in particular, olive pits.

This strengthens the local Spanish market and reduces the outflow of purchasing power. The company has extensively tested the use of alternative fuels in its own test centre, and several Hargassner biomass heating systems using olive pits are now in operation.

Olive pits as fuel

The pits are a huge local waste product. Spain is the world’s largest producer of olive oil, with 2.2 million hectares under cultivation and an annual production of 1.5 million tonnes. In comparison, Italy produces 550,000 tonnes per year and Greece 350,000 tonnes. The energy density of olive pits is similar to that of pellets without the need for compression. This is obviously a huge potential. However, in order to be used as a biomass fuel, the pits must also meet strict requirements: granulometry, as it is a very small fuel, cleaning and ensuring a constant quality of the olive pits. These factors are guaranteed by the “BIOmasud” certificate. Specifically, the following Hargassner boilers can be used with olive pits Nano-PK, Classic Lambda, Eco-PK and Eco-HK.

Olé! Celebrating in Spanish

On 9 May 2023, colleagues gathered in Spain to celebrate the successful anniversary together with Markus Hargassner, Herbert Schwarz and Steven Trogisch. The celebrations began at the Biomass Fair in Valladolid and ended at the beautiful Museo Patio Herreiano – an art museum known for its classical arched architecture. Together they looked back on the past years and celebrated the results achieved.