Annual Reports

A new year ends, the one corresponding to the annual 2022, in which the Technological Center for Furniture and Wood (CETEM) has continued to work intensely to increase the added value of all those companies that have decided to count on us as strategic allies and the indispensable innovative process on which the most advanced companies are based.

CETEM managed to close a positive fiscal year with a 9.1% growth in revenues compared to 2021 financial year, where an increase of 64,1% in private turnover stood out very significantly. This is of great importance because it proves that there is a growing interest of the business sector in the advanced projects and services on offer. Besides, it reveals a financial solvency that guarantees the viability of the institution, which continues growing in income at a significant rate, specially when it has been achieved with only a 4,5% increase in the wage bill.

This year CETEM stood out for its strength. Despite the pandemic, we managed to close the year 2020 with good results, even though we had to refocus our actions on new business needs during these tough months. Very remarkable were the tasks coordinating the manufacture of medical devices by our associated companies when there was a total shortage in Spain, as well as directly manufacturing material for our health system. This reality highlighted the importance of institutions such as CETEM which "would have to be invented if they did not exist".

This 2019 was a very special year for the institution over which I preside.

CETEM consolidated its position as the national epicentre in the generation of innovation for the habitat industry through a more than considerable increase in its activity. This growth was achieved by a highly qualified technical team of almost fifty excellent professionals which provided CETEM activity with a true differential value and who were responsible for making this year one of the best financial results in recent years.

We closed 2018 with a new increase in turnover along with a growth in human resources making up CETEM's staff, as well as a notable positioning as a benchmark technology centre both at national and international level. It is important to highlight this data, which interested parties may find in a very summarised form in this printed extract from the Annual Report 2018. Above all, the focus should be made on the continuous growth trend of recent years, achieved through a strategy based on focusing our activity on our partners' and customers' satisfaction, mainly SMEs, which value CETEM as the perfect ally to gain competitiveness based on innovation in all departments and levels of the company. Furthermore, 2018 was a preparatory year prior to the silver jubilee of our technology centre, which will take place next year and to which the centre has arrived in a very good financial health.

Achieving our strategic objectives, CETEM experienced a 26% growth in its revenue, along with a 19% growth in human resources. Moreover, in the current financial year 2018, growth is expected to consolidate and increase by more than double-digit volumes.

Regarding the origin of the funds, the growth of 33% in 2017 in obtaining European competitive public funding confirms the good work done in the internationalisation of CETEM and highlights the productive activity over the last years. This has led CETEM to become an international model in those areas in which it is an expert, as well as a strategic partner for the entire network of its current international partners.

For CETEM 2016 was a year for consolidating a growth in its activities and for strengthening its promising and exciting expectations that will be strongly fulfilled during the financial year 2017.

The strong strategic focus in growing internationally that started a few years ago is now paying off, as evidenced by the many international projects in collaboration with partners from almost all over the European Union. This is making CETEM known and recognised as a strategic partner by major companies and European research centres that aspire to have CETEM as an active member of the consortia for carrying out important R&D&i projects.

It has been 20 years since September 2015, when the original CETEM facilities started operating with just three technicians of staff. After these two decades, it is advisable, almost mandatory, to stop along the way to evaluate the achievements to date. In this analysis, a very positive balance can and should be noted withouth doubt.

This growth, together with a very praiseworthy professional management, has been the driving force of the acknowledgement of CETEM as a national and international model in the areas in which it works and specially in areas involving new materials based on polyurethane, ambient intelligence, robotics and automatics, and advanced product engineering. Not for nothing collaborated CETEM with companies and organisations of 27 out of the 28 countries the European Union comprises during the already closed financial year 2015. This is a clear sign of the good results the internationalisation strategy, adopted by CETEM a few years ago, has brought.

With the financial year 2014 closed, it is time to make an assessment looking encouragingly to the future. During this year, tough decisions had to be taken that were, however, essential to ensure the medium- and long-term viability of CETEM. Once the financial year is closed, we have seen once more that an early analysis and a sensible and coherent strategy based on it have made it possible for the immediate future to be even more hopeful than we had originally anticipated.

Thus, we can foresee a very promising 2015 in which CETEM will remain spearheading nationally and internationally the R&D&i applied especially to small and medium-sized companies.