ESG Criteria

Both in its management and in its shareholding structure, G.I.K.C, S.A. is completely focused, beyond financial viability, on environmental sustainability and responsibility for the well-being of all the people who work and live around our company and our business.

The company’s shareholding, 100% Spanish, has been held since its creation by the same family, the Ruiz y Villandiego family.

This “company culture”, based on what is now called “ESG Criteria”, has been the DNA of the company since its creation by its founders and first manager Mr. José Cruz Ruiz Zufiaur with his wife Mª del Carmen Villandiego.

Today, more than 50 years later, these criteria are still the basis of the management and daily life of all employees. We take care of each other, of our environment, of our suppliers, of our customers and also of our competitors, because the world is common and we can always need each other.

With regard to the ESG criteria, we will start with the measures we take to comply with the first letter.

Our commitment to the environment.

Our goal is not only to minimize the possible negative effects of our activity, but also to take actions that generate a direct positive impact. In this area we adopt all measures, from the legal ones to those that go beyond our most intimate conscience.

The environmental responsibility measures that we are implementing in our company are as follows:

• We use recyclable and reusable wooden pallets and crates, resulting in a reduction of more than 20% per year in wood consumption.
• As far as possible, we try not to use non-recyclable plastics, foams or polymers in our packaging, having reduced by more than 80% the purchase of plastic derivatives in the last 3 years.
• We have internally banned the use of aerosols in all our facilities since 2016, passing its consumption to practically 0, and if necessary, we manage the recycling of its containers with the authorized company BIDASOA ECO GESTION. Our records show that this responsible management with BIDASOA ECO GESTION, has cost us €3,713.84 in recent years, but thus we have achieved the complete recycling of aerosol containers.
  We have implemented since 2019 the zero paper philosophy. The paper used in the offices must be recycled, so we have reduced its consumption from €6,000 to approximately €1,200, being all paper of recycled origin.
• We have implemented since 2019 the zero paper philosophy. The paper used in the offices must be recycled, so we have reduced its consumption from €6,000 to approximately €1,200, being all paper of recycled origin.
• We have always recycled and since 2020 we have been sorting our metal waste according to its composition in order to maximize recycling. This brings us an increase in our income statement, in the scrap item of more than 40%, in addition to ensuring that almost all of our metal waste is recycled.
• We try to source from nearby companies in order to reduce carbon emissions to the atmosphere as much as possible.
• We manage our waste responsibly and do not discharge any waste into the sewage system. We have no reports on the reduction of dumping, because it has never been done.
• All the employees of the staff live in the area where the company’s warehouses are located. For new hires, we always try to select people from nearby towns to facilitate and avoid long commutes. Off-site community activities are carried out by public transport.
• Our suppliers are also alerted to the importance of using recyclable paper, packaging plastics and wood.

The current owners of Kempchen Comdiflex (sons of the founder) are doctors and demand compliance with occupational safety measures beyond the occupational hazard regulations.

They have entrusted the daily management to Ms. Arancha Guerrero, giving even more importance to emotional well-being than to physical well-being. Worrying and taking care that the atmosphere in the company is really affable, far from personal or collective conflicts. External human resources audits have been contracted frequently enough to know the personal and group emotional state of the staff.

The administration and management are deeply convinced that a happy workforce results in product quality and excellence in customer service. Both are key aspects in the already very demanding sector in which we work.

Since the beginning of the company, back in the 60’s, even in the Company Agreement, there is a clause in which the employees’ relatives had, and still have, priority in new hires, thus creating a feeling of belonging to the company and of “family” that honors the company with a loyalty and respect worthy of admiration. Many of the company’s current employees are the children of former employees who retired “at home” and we already have a third generation.

We do not rely on temporary contracts. Our employees thus enjoy security and stability to develop their personal lives without worry.

In addition, as part of the company’s policy, flexible working hours are also provided in order to adapt employees’ schedules to reconcile their family life.

Kempchen-Comdiflex is also a company with a solidarity projection. And the employees are aware of this.

Recently, for example, at the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the company’s employees were involved in buying clothes and food to send to Ukraine. We try to make sure that our contribution to the problems around us is not just financial outlays. We are doing it together.

We are creating an ongoing collaboration with an NGO working in what we know as the third world, the AMIGOS SOLIDARIOS foundation, which works for and for education and equality in Uganda.

Regarding equality and diversity policies, we have never had any conflict in this regard. They would have no place in the company. Although most of the shop floor workers are men, there are also women, and although most of the office workers are women, there are also men. Not surprisingly, the administrator is a man and the manager is a woman.

The relationship between all of them is friendly and the relationship between the people in the workshop and the offices is constant. We are used to working with urgencies and this means that the commercial department and the workshop need to communicate fluently about priorities, availability of raw materials, transport, etc. This is where the commitment to equality and co-responsibility arises, which is strengthened by management.

We should add that we have personnel of different nationalities and that there has never been any conflict, not even the slightest. Respect for sexual, political or religious orientation is absolute.

As previously mentioned, the treatment that is encouraged is always respectful, friendly and familiar, so there are no conflicts of this type. Tolerance would be zero.

Today, Kempchen-Comdiflex is a public limited company and its shares belong to the heirs of the founder.

José Cruz Ruiz Zufiaur had three sons: José Cruz Jr., Eric and Iñigo. Jose Cruz and Iñigo are both doctors. The first is currently head of the Odonto-Estomatology service at the Hospital Quirón in San Sebastián and the second is head of Radiology at the Hospital de Jerez.

It was Eric, who passed away a few years ago after a long illness, who was destined to manage the company founded by his father. He studied for it at the Comercial de Deusto and modernized the company during the 10 years he managed it. After the very painful loss of Eric, the family was plunged into sadness and soon after, Mr. Ruiz Zufiaur passed away as well.

José Cruz Jr. had to take over the company. Although he hardly knew the product, the sector, or the operation of an industrial business, he got involved in its management in order to maintain it because if he knew anything, it was that he had to take care of the company and the people working in it, because for his father they had been part of his family, and he had lived this way since he was a child.

He also knew that the quality of the product had to be an absolute guarantee in an industry that is so demanding in terms of safety and efficiency.

Finally, he was aware that the company’s personnel knew very well how to do their job, so he began to design a code of ethics and conduct, based on the company culture that his father and his brother Eric had instilled in the workers.

Today José Cruz Ruiz Jr. is the Sole Administrator and Arancha Guerrero is the Manager.

The code of conduct is unique between the two. It is based fundamentally on good practices with the workers. Prioritizing good communication, good atmosphere, common project and legacy. Avoiding collective conflict and always maintaining a fluid relationship both with the unions and with each and every one of the workers.

Always, without exception, all workers who require it are attended to equally, without any chain of command. Management and administration work in the workshop and in the offices, even with itinerant physical workstations. The management works hand in hand with the welders, the lathe operators, the technical-commercial department or the textile department workers. With everyone equally, maintaining a close relationship with the entire workforce.

Within this company culture is the multidisciplinary concept of the entire workforce.

We work with indicators (measurable criteria) to encourage each worker in the workshop to learn the greatest number of tasks and thus be more agile in emergencies and to be able to manage the work peaks that come with the stoppages of the central framework contracts. These indicators show in tables the tasks that each worker is capable of doing, what they need to improve and what training they need. This has allowed the creation of an exceptional R&D&I area.

We currently have framework contracts with Cepsa, Repsol, Sabic, Galp and Dupont. This portfolio has made us rethink our way of managing the workshop and the technical-commercial department.

We have, in each area, tables with the planned shutdowns in each refinery of the framework contracts. We try to keep a high stock of all the necessary raw materials and we organize the staff’s vacations always taking into account the planned shutdowns. Our priority is to anticipate our customers’ needs in order to be able to meet all their requirements and last minute emergencies.

We are fully aware of the importance of our total availability and flexibility to meet any demand in-extremis.

We have an established protocol to be able to manufacture and send in a few hours any gasket or compensator to any plant in Spain and Portugal.

The relationship with suppliers must also be one of total confidence. When working with urgencies we need suppliers of raw material and services that offer us this agility and security. The only way is to work with regular suppliers and that is what we promote. The supply chain must be guaranteed, always seeking to comply with our km 0 policy, thus being responsible with the environment as far as possible.

Kempchen-Comdiflex aims to be at the forefront of sealing, expansion and corrosion control in the petrochemical sector.

Our R&D department is currently developing several products for the storage and transport of green hydrogen. This department in turn works daily on new manufacturing processes (Lean Manufacturing) to increase the productivity of our resources, both human and material.

Our relationship with the Public Administration and financial entities is close and problem-free. We have no defaults, neither as creditors nor as debtors. We work with Crédito y Caución to avoid working with potential problem clients. Our specific financing needs are covered without major problems.

These are the measures we are currently implementing to be socially and environmentally responsible. But ESG criteria are a form of management, of continuous improvement, so this report must be reviewed and updated frequently, adapting not only to the increasingly demanding environmental regulations, but also to our own company ethics and culture, which aims to be better every day. More supportive, more responsible, more empathetic and, in short, more respectful with the world around us, with the culture we have inherited and with the one we are going to leave to future generations.

December 5, 2022

Angel Cerrillo Granado
Quality, Environmental Management and Occupational Risk Prevention Resp.

Arancha Guerrero
General Manager