With the declaration of the state of emergency, more than two years ago, Eldine Pathology, a family laboratory, had to send its employees home. For not too long. The response was quick. They signed an ICO credit of 200,000 euros, with a turnover of one million, a few hours after the Spanish Government opened the possibility of doing so.
“From the first moment we bet on a PCR test that had to be fast, otherwise it would not make sense”, reasons Àngels Fortuño, founder and owner of Eldine Pathology. Her bet, the purchase of technology and the forging of alliances. The laboratory is a reference in Tarragona, Lleida, Zaragoza, Huesca and Teruel.
Turnover last year reached 2.2 million, twice as much as before the pandemic. “Growth has made us stronger,” says Fortuño. With a great dedication to service, it has also become the covid reference laboratory for petrochemicals and the port of Tarragona, Port Aventura or Ikea.
As an anatomical pathology laboratory, they compete in a sector dominated by multinationals. The pandemic has triggered them, but even before the health emergency they were growing. “We were a consolidated laboratory, we were already growing before,” recalls Fortuño.
They have taken advantage of their small size, with thirty workers, to adapt to changes, wave after wave. “As a small company we know our limitations but also our strengths; being small allows you to be very flexible,” he argues.
Before the pandemic, they carried out some 700 molecular biology tests in this Tarragona laboratory. Last year they reached 22,500 and this 2022 they expect to continue growing. Patients who must go through the operating room, travelers, companies and citizens who come individually to certify whether or not they have been infected make up the four large groups with which they work.
The covid now represents 30% of the activity of Eldine Pathology. “The company and the activity are the same, we have not changed”, highlights Lluís Pons, Eldine’s healthcare director, a key figure in the laboratory. Fortuño, a specialist in pathological anatomy, lost his job in the 1990s and decided to take the MBA (Master in Business Administration and Management) at the URV. In 2012 he bought, together with his colleague, Pons, a historic laboratory in Tortosa that had a turnover of 200,000 euros at the time.
They dare not say what will happen from now on, but whatever happens they will probably be prepared to respond and to respond very quickly. “Can anyone predict what will happen tomorrow? Fortuño added.
