The year 1960 was hugely significant in OSF Group’s history. It was when Iñigo Ajuria’s father, Andoni Ajuria, OSF Group’s then owner and founder, decided to switch from being a predominantly limestone aggregate producer to become mainly a producer of ophite, much harder greenish mottled rocks with ophitic texture such as diabase.
“My father could see that the future was in hard stone. Everybody else was producing limestone products. There was too much competition,” explains Iñigo.
After opening Ofitas de Santutis quarry in Álava, south of Bilbao in the Basque Country, northern Spain in 1960, Andoni bought the giant Ofitas de San Felices quarry, near Haro in La Rioja in 1973, when the then owner was forced to sell due to bankruptcy. At the time the quarry, which celebrated its centenary in 2019, was the only ophite rock quarry in La Rioja and the neighbouring Basque Country.
Five highly productive years of aggregates production at Ofitas de San Felices were painfully interrupted one day by a tragic accident. “In 1978, my father and one of his guys fell into a working crusher hopper. My father survived but his colleague died. I was shocked. I was just a 12-year-old boy at the time,” recalls Iñigo. “I was so glad my father survived, but it was a very difficult time for him and the business.”
Between the early 1980s and the early 1990s, the Spanish quarrying sector developed massively due to increased aggregates demand brought on by an abundance of civil infrastructure works. In the Basque Country, neighbouring OSF Group’s traditional Haro base, such works were evident in Bilbao and other key regional cities and towns.
In the second half of the 1990s, the high-speed rail line between Barcelona and Madrid was created, generating huge demand for ballast and a great business opportunity for the OSF Group. After securing a lucrative supply contract for the new Barcelona-Madrid rail route, OSF Group made a large investment in upgrading its machine fleets at the company’s two northern Spain quarries. In the late 1990s, the company also invested heavily in new equipment for its 1991-purchased Ofitas de Cerro Sillado quarry in Guadix, Granada, southern Spain. This allowed the firm to cater for high ballast demand from contractors working on the new Málaga-Córdoba high-speed rail link in the south of the country. Along with acquiring new loading and hauling models for its three quarries, OSF Group purchased new crushing and screening plant from premium original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as Metso.
“In the period 2000 to 2007, the Spanish economy was booming. We had a greater aggregate consumption than Germany! We were at 500 million tonnes a year. Aggregates, ballast and other building materials were all in huge demand. In 2007, more houses were built in Spain than in Germany and France together. I was OSF Group’s production manager at that time, my elder brother was managing director, and my father was the company president.”
Iñigo’s elder brother left OSF Group in 2006 and not long after Andoni fell ill, handing over the running of his company to his youngest son.
“I have more or less followed my father’s teachings but have taken on board the evolution of quarrying production and the general running of a business,” says Iñigo.
The global financial crisis of 2007-2008 hit hard in Spain, not least in its quarrying sector. As a result, national aggregates demand is now around 105 million tonnes a year – around a fifth of 2007 demand.
“The most important thing following the global financial crisis was the survival of the company. Nobody saw the crisis coming. I’ve always been very loyal. I was loyal to my father and I am loyal to our team. When I took over the company from my father in 2007, the team helped me a great deal. I was also in a dialogue with my father about how we were investing in our quarries. He was completely supportive.”
Iñigo says the full impact of the global financial crisis was felt most severely in northern Spain from 2010 onwards, due to funding having been already committed to longer-term infrastructure projects.
OSF Group’s 100-hectare Ofitas de San Felices quarry is surrounded by stunning scenery, including Las Conchas de Haro, a mountain range which rises imperiously above the road near Haro. The quarry is believed to be among the oldest and possibly the largest of its type in Spain, and its wide range of aggregates includes some of the highest quality ballast in the country – which is taken out by train.
Currently the quarry, which employs 30 people, produces some 4,000 tonnes of ophite a day due to current lower demand, although at full capacity the all-Metso plant can produce 8,000 tonnes a day. Around 30% of current daily output is railway ballast; 60% smaller chips and sand and 10% is fines. The site also produces 6,000 tonnes of limestone products each day.
“We changed the position of the crushing plant at San Felices step-by-step from 2008 as the quarry reserve was underneath it. We also wanted a new plant that was bigger and smarter,” explains Iñigo. “The new plant was fully installed by 2011, just as our turnover was falling by 66% due to the impact of the global financial crisis. At that time, we had to lay off half of our workers. We had two working quarries, San Felices and Cerro Sillado in Granada, and decided we must invest money in our plant capabilities to survive. Automation and other new technology have made our crushing and screening more efficient.”
Next to Ofitas de San Felices quarry, Iñigo has a 34-hectare vineyard where he has grown Tempranillo grapes for about ten years, the bulk of which he sells to a winery in Haro. The town itself is noted for its annual wine festival on 29 June which includes a ‘Batalla de Vino’ and youth bullfights.
As reported in Aggregates Business November-December 2019 issues, OSF Group is currently producing out of the 2016-reopened Santutis quarry ballast for the ambitious Basque Y high-speed rail project linking three major Basque Country cities – Vitoria-Gasteiz, Bilbao and Donostia-San Sebastián. Originally due to be completed by 2023 but now behind schedule, the 194km- (157km double track and 37km single track) route will transport passengers and cargo, the latter between the ports of Bilbao and Pasaia. Basque Y is set to reduce journey times between Vitoria-Gasteiz, Bilbao and Donostia-San Sebastián to less than one hour, compared to anything between one hour 40 minutes and two-and-a-half hours currently. The new line will also connect the Basque Country with the rest of Spain.
For Iñigo, the sight of ballast production at Santutis quarry represents a happy ending to a bureaucratic battle lasting 14 years. “I was fighting to get permissions and authorisations to reopen Santutis quarry since 2002. We knew the market would pick up as the Basque Y project was many years in the planning. We simply had to have Santutis up and running. It’s the only quarry that has been opened or reopened in the Basque Country in 20 years.
“We have six million tonnes of reserves at San Felices quarry – that’s 12 years of reserves at current 500,000 tonnes a year production. We have 15 million tonnes of reserves at Santutis quarry.”
Alongside ballast and highway works-suited aggregate products, OSF Group produces concrete, asphalt and a rock product used to make rock wool, created by spinning molten rock and minerals with steel slag to create a cotton-candy-like wool product. This is then used as horticultural growing media or building insulation. “This is a very important product and market for us,” stresses Iñigo.
Spanish politics remains highly contentious despite the installation on 8 January 2020 of Pedro Sánchez as the leader of modern Spain’s first coalition government. After long and bitter battles between various political parties vying for power, the Socialist Party (PSOE) leader and now prime minister is pinning his hopes on the fledgling coalition with the radical left Podemos party being even harder to oust than it was to put into power. Undoubtedly, the holding of four general elections in Spain in the last four years has done nothing to improve the country’s fragile economy and encourage business investment.
“There is no political stability in Spain, and investment in civil work is not profitable,” notes Iñigo. “I also foresee another big global recession coming.”
Despite the tough current and future economic outlook, Inigo says OSF Group is in good shape to withstand any new major economic turbulence. “I believe we are ahead of our competitors. The quality of our final product is the best, and the quality of our production plant is also the best on the market. This reduces our cost of production compared to our rivals. We also have huge knowledge of the aggregates business in the regions where we operate, and our reputation both locally and nationally among rail and highway contractors is very strong.
“I have successful quarries in the north and south of Spain. I would also like to establish OSF Group as an aggregates company name in the centre of the country, near Madrid. We are looking to open a quarry like San Felices in that area within the next three years. It’s a very good region for aggregates demand.”
As well as shaping OSF Group’s current trading and working on future company goals, Iñigo still finds time to indulge in his passion for Deportivo Alavés, a Spanish La Liga football team, watching them play in games at their home stadium in Vitoria-Gasteiz, and in away games in cities and towns all over Spain.
Summarising his approach to work and the demands of running a successful Spanish aggregates products business industry, he says: “I have been working with aggregates since I was a child. I like to have new challenges and I love to overcome them. I am very proud of my team and what OSF Group has achieved.”
