Spain and the United States - Real Instituto Elcano

THE US PLAYERS IN SPAIN 59
and Unilever Best Foods. Coca Cola and PepsiCo are also big in Spain –
Barcelona is the headquarters of PepsiCo’s Southern Europe Business Unit,
which covers 11 countries. Coors Brewing turned its factory in Zaragoza,
which it bought from Heineken in 1994, into its hub for the European market.
This purchase was Coors’ first outside the United States. In 2004 Wrigley, the
world’s largest chewing gum maker, acquired for $272 million confectionery
businesses that were part of the Joyco Group, a subsidiary of the Spanish food
conglomerate Agrolimen. They included Boomer bubble gum, Pim Pim
lollipops and Solano candy.
In the defence industry, General Dynamics, as a result of its purchase
of Santa Bárbara Sistemas in 2001, is the main supplier of equipment to
the Spanish armed forces. Santa Bárbara dates back to 1540 and was privatised
by the previous Popular Party government. It makes armoured vehicles,
weapons systems and ammunition and has sold its products to the armed forces
of 47 countries. In 2002, Santa Bárbara bought Germany’s EWK, which
designs, develops and makes floating bridges and ferrying equipment for
military forces.
Alcoa, the world’s leading producer of aluminium, also entered Spain
under a privatisation process when it acquired Inespal in 1998. Inespal has 13
plants around Spain and its history is basically that of aluminium in Spain. The
first ton of this metal was produced at a small plant in Sabiñánigo, Huesca, in
1927. The company’s name at that time was Aluminio Español and it was
owned by French groups.
In research and technology, Boeing chose Spain in 2004 as the first
country outside of the United States where it located an R&T centre. The
facility at Madrid airport is designing and testing the control system for
Boeing’s energy-efficient demonstrator aircraft, technology that, if successful,
will make air travel cleaner and more efficient. Boeing’s relationship with
Spain goes back to 1944, when three DC-3s were sold to Iberia airlines. In
1998, Iberia purchased its 100 th Boeing jet. The relationship with local
suppliers began in 1971, when CASA was awarded a contract to manufacture
parts for the 727. Today CASA, a subsidiary of the European Aeronautic,
Defence and Space Company (EADS), manufactures components for the 717,
777 and 737 jets at its plant in Seville. The Spanish government started its
relationship with Boeing in 1973, when it purchased Chinook double-rotor
military transport helicopters.
Spain’s banking and insurance industries are two sectors of the economy
which US companies, and foreign ones in general, have not penetrated to any
significant degree. The only US bank with a network of branches in Spain is
Citibank, which established itself in the country in 1983 after buying Banco de