FAGOR

Fagor is a Spanish Basque company founded in 1956. It was founded in Mondragon at the foot of Mount Santa Barbara. It was a subsidiary of the world's largest cooperative, Corporation Mondragon. It all began in 1943, when a young village vicar decided to set up a democratically-run vocational training school. In 1955, five young graduates of the school set up what was to become Fagor, in the field of domestic electrical appliances. Fagor was also the first to create a social security scheme for cooperatives. Growth was meteoric, from 479 jobs in 1960 to 8,743 in 1970. It covered the entire domestic appliances market, including cooker hoods and water heaters. Everything was about to change on the eve of the new millennium. Most of the group's 60,000 employees were salaried rather than shareholders, and growth was mainly external, as with the acquisition of Brandt. It became Europe's 5th largest household appliance group. The old Ecole Polytechnique is transformed into a university. Fagor markets the Fagor, Brandt, Edesa, Vedette, Sauter and De Dietrich brands. Fagor France has 4 factories in France and 1 in Italy. But in 2013, following financial difficulties, Fagor Brandt was forced to file for bankruptcy and was bought by the Cevital group.