Abelló Linde Centenary Book

THE FIVE YEARS OF THE AGRUPACIÓN (1926-1930)
he Agrupación held a lot of very long meetings during the first two
Tyears of life, and very long meetings, but more spaced out, later. To
begin with the matters dealt with were of a practical nature, affecting
the day-to-day affairs of the members: the supply of oxygen to the major Spanish
railway companies, the chief consumer group, the suppression of the figure of the
retailer, the rules for dealing with salesmen, the installations and the autogenous
welding gear, the conditions of hire and transportation of bottles, the unification of
the tests to which the containers had to be subjected, etc. And, of course, the
information on the price of oxygen, which oscillated between 1.50 and 3 pesetas
per cubic metre. Transport costs were met by consumers a long way from the
supply factory. The oxygen had to be supplied at a minimum purity of 97%. It was
also agreed to establish a publications and advertising section, with its
headquarters in Madrid, which would advertise the industrial applications of
oxygen. On these points there was understanding.
But more general and more conflictive matters soon emerged, the result of
the appearance of new oxygen manufacturers, on one hand, and the
encroachment of some in the territory of others. The general criterion was to
respect each company and exclusively the geographical area around each factory,
and pass on the responsibility for any changes to the Agrupación. This, moreover,
had to be aware of and previously authorise the expansion of the production of
the associates. As Isidro Abelló later confessed, the members did not keep the
promises made at all.
“The first results of the Agrupación have been the agreement between L’Air
Liquide and Nacional in Bilbao, and in the south the agreement between the
Seville factory (L’Air Liquide) and La Malagueña with the purchase of shares by
L’Air Liquide in La Malagueña for the supply of machinery and bottles to the tune
of 200,000 pesetas.” 6
The former operation referred to the peace – provisional – with the
company that was now its competitor in Bilbao and the latter, to the position of
control already mentioned over La Oxhídrica Malagueña.
Shortly after the Agrupación was established, in 1926, Domingo Martínez,
an oxygen retailer in Madrid, the representative in that city of the blowtorches of
the German firm Messer, asked to join the Agrupación, while expressing his
intention to install an oxygen factory in the capital. The Agrupación refused him
membership as it considered that the Madrid market was saturated and that the
new factory would be “inappropriate” and “disruptive”. Nevertheless, the factory
opened on November 1 st 1926, once it had received the government’s
authorisation. Given the importance of the petitioner, contact was maintained
between both parties.
6. Letter from Isidro Abelló to Linde, December 27 1926.
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