If Covestro’s future in Tarragona is guaranteed, it is thanks to Andrea Firenze, who since taking over as general manager in Spain has gone out of her way to avoid a closure that seemed inevitable. At the beginning of this year, the German multinational announced an investment of 200 million euros in the construction of a chlorine plant that will allow the historic polyurethane factory to maintain the competitiveness. The company creates 50 jobs and guarantees the continuity of 250 more. “When I took over as CEO seven years ago, it seemed like there was no choice but to shut down the plant. We worked hard to create a feasibility plan and the effort has paid offâ€, says Firenze with satisfaction.
The manager does not rest. It has already designed other projects valued at 70 million euros that propose to modernize and expand the activity of the other Covestro plants in Spain, located in the Barcelona Free Trade Zone and the municipalities of Santa Margarida and Parets del Vallès (the last two, the result of of the acquisition of DSM Resinas in 2021). At the moment, the manager rules out expanding his presence in the rest of Spain, since there is still potential in Catalonia. The community has become one of the strategic regions – after Germany and on a par with Belgium. The chemical multinational that was born as a spin-off from the Bayer group in 2014, today bills around 18,000 million euros a year and employs more than 500 people in Spain.
The future of Covestro in Catalonia is a story of improvement for Firenze, who was born in Brazil into a humble family. His father, from Italy, and his mother, from Egypt, emigrated after the war in search of new opportunities. And they found them: Bayer signed his father as a maintenance technician at a plant in the south of the country. “I grew up closely with the industry and as a young man I opted for studies in Chemical Engineering at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. My goal was to do a doctorate but the business world fascinated me when I started doing an internship in the same plant as my fatherâ€, he recalls.
Firenze began working as a production engineer in Brazil, was transferred for three years to a plant in Dormagen, Germany –where he met his wife and mother of his two children–, and later returned to Brazil. But he again he went back to pack his bags. This time to Pittsburgh, United States, where he worked as polyurethane production coordinator. It was in June 2008 when he arrived in Tarragona to assume the position of manager of the polyurethane plant, materials used for the production of plastics and foams of all kinds. In January 2015, he was appointed manager of the factory and a year later, he assumed the general management in Spain with the challenge of giving continuity to the Tarragona plant. “The beginnings were difficult. I lived through the hardest years of my career: every day I went to the factory I had to face the worried faces of the workers. Now, at last, I can enjoy the position, â€he celebrates.
Based in Castelldefels, the manager controls the activity of the four Covestro plants. “From this location I can move quickly. In addition, it allows me to enjoy long walks with Hector, my Doberman dog, who is almost my third child. People hear me talking to him and they must think I’m crazy. I am absorbing myself in my own meditations. I go out with him at five in the morning and also at nightâ€. In addition, the manager combats stress by practicing karate three times a week. “I am a black belt. This sport fascinates me because it teaches me a lot about discipline and respect, which I then apply to real lifeâ€. Prepared for any blow, Firenze faces the future at Covestro with determination and enthusiasm.
