Messer, the world’s largest privately owned specialist for industrial, medical, and specialty gases, has opened a new production center in Estella (Navarre), Spain. The plant will be used to fill industrial, food, medical, and special gases in cylinders and bundles for delivery to Messer’s customers in northern Spain. 

The commissioning of the new filling plant for cylinder gases led to the direct and indirect creation of 25 new jobs in the region. The plant offers a production capacity of 250,000 gas cylinders per year and will be powered entirely by renewable energy. The plant will also be granted approval as a pharmaceutical laboratory for the production of medical gases; in the future, it will also include additional filling lines for green hydrogen. 

As Rubén Folgado, Managing Director of Messer in Spain, pointed out in his opening speech, “This new investment boosts Messer’s competitiveness and strengthens our growth strategy in the Iberian Peninsula.” “Our products are indispensable to many industrial processes, where they enhance safety, increase efficiency, and improve the environmental outcomes of our customers’ production processes,” Folgado added. He spoke in front of more than 100 invited guests, headed by the most important authorities of the region, including the President of Navarre, María Chivite, and Alicia Echeverría, the Government Delegate in the region. Guests also included Mikel Irujo, the Regional Minister for Industry, Environment and Digital Change, and Marta Ruiz, the Mayor of Estella. 

Messer: a 125-year success story 

Stefan Messer, Chairman of the Supervisory Board and third-generation shareholder of Messer, and Virginia Esly, CEO Messer Europe, joined in welcoming the guests. In his address, Stefan Messer offered an overview of his company’s success story spanning more than 125 years, which currently employs around 11,500 people in Asia, Europe, and America. He underscored that the development of Messer in Spain is solid and that the company is on a good growth path. 

In her speech, Virginia Esly emphasized that Messer’s business in Europe remains resilient and is thus very successful. “Our independence strategy for profitable growth also includes the investment we have made here in Navarre,” Esly added.

The President of the Navarre region, María Chivite, welcomed the investment in Estella for the number of jobs created. “This is a concrete example of how Messer’s projects directly improve people’s lives,” she said. She also stressed that it is encouraging to see how companies with international operations such as Messer are committed to reducing environmental impacts by promoting decarbonization solutions or working entirely with renewable energy. “I have faith that we will soon be able to count on Messer’s planned filling plant for green hydrogen here in Estella,” María Chivite concluded.