MENORQUIN HINGES “FLY” TO DUBAI

IES JOSEP MIQUEL GUARDIA Santi Mascaró and Maria Mercadal

The local company from Alaior called Pons, Sintes and Petrus has given us the chance to find out how hinges are made. For the last few weeks , it has been on the mass media because it sells its products to Dubai. So, we decided to interview its managers in order to find out how they managed to sell their goods so far away.

All the family welcome us in the office: Cristòfol and his son and daughter, Bernat and Isabel Pons respectively, who are two of the four generations that have run the company since 1925.

The factory employs 40 workers, who are all in charge of making hinges. This process starts when the raw material arrrives and it is first cut into pieces and then eletroplated, dried, polished and finally packed and distributed.

We got dumbfounded when Isabel Pons told us that “one hinge is about 4 or 5 pesetas”, which is less than 5 cents. Besides, her father said laughing that “about 50,000 hinges are made per day, and you can imagine how many are produced every year!”

Each kind of hinges thar is made has different uses “ from hinges for furniture to those that are for ships or the construction industry and so on.

Regarding the origin and the competition that they have in Menorca, Bernat explains that “three years ago there were three factories in Alaior: ours was the one which was located opposite the old school La Salle, another one in Es Banyer and the last one in the main road to Ciutadella. In the early nineties one of these two last factories closed down and the other one merged with ours in 1992. Consequently, they now have competition all over Spain; for example “ there are factories in the Basque Country and Catalonia that also make hinges although a few of them have closed down because of the recession.

As for the clients they have in Dubai, Isabel tells us that “ two years ago we participated in the trade fair in Dubai and people became interested in our products although we didn’t make any deals there but we had three contacts , with whom they started to do business last November.

Looking into the future, Pons acknowledges that “our goal is to keep on working and doing business with companies around the world. we also wans to continue participating in the trade fair in Dubai, which will mean that the company is going well.”

Regarding the economic recession, we were told that it has affected their sales , especially national ones. Mr Pons said “ We had very good clients in Spain but sales have gone down. On the other hand, Isabel said that “the exports have increased”.

We said goodbye and thanked the owners of the factory for answering our questions so kindly. We were really pleased to get to one of the most international companies in our city.