Crisis Under the Rug at Geosynthetic Manufacturer Intermas
Crisis Under the Rug at Geosynthetic Manufacturer Intermas
Workers have been on strike for a month and are demanding a viability plan from the company owned by the Abac Capital fund.
The company went from a turnover of €87 million in 2021 to €41 million last year.
A deep economic crisis is threatening the survival of the iconic industrial company Intermas, based in Llinars del Vallès. Workers at this company, founded in 1957, have raised the alarm due to a situation that led them to begin a mobilization plan since last April. The company, which manufactures geosynthetic grids and mesh saw its workers begin a strike on April 10, which has continued with two hours of stoppage per shift, four days a week. Intermas employs about 175 people in Llinars. According to EL PERIÓDICO, the company's situation even threatens its survival. The strike was sparked by various conflicts with the company, which is chaired by Borja Martínez de la Rosa (co-founder of Abac Capital) and led by Cédric Ballay as CEO. According to the workers' committee, Intermas violated an agreement with the workers. The agreement stated that starting January this year, they would begin to receive part of a salary increase owed under the labour agreement — an increase the workforce had agreed to defer to 2025–2027 to ease the company’s financial strain. The committee estimates that each worker has lost about €4,000 on average due to the breach. This was not the only issue the workforce faced. In 2023, they went through a temporary layoff plan (ERTE) intended to avoid redundancies, yet dismissals occurred in both 2023 and 2024. This year, after the company failed to uphold the agreed salary raise, Intermas invoked Article 41, allowing substantial modifications to employment conditions. On May 1, a 23% salary reduction was implemented. However, Intermas later clarified to the newspaper that the cut was 11.5% this year and another 11.5% in 2026, and that in practice it was a wage freeze, not a cut. The workers' committee argues that this "freeze" merely reversed previously agreed raises. Intermas maintains that their salaries are “well above” the industry standard.
Why has the company taken these cost-cutting measures?
The reason lies in a stark fact: Intermas' revenue dropped from €87 million in 2021 to €54 million in 2022, then to €45 million in 2023, and finally €41 million in 2024 — a 53% decrease over four years.
Abac and Catral Acquire Intermas Group
The biggest drop came in 2022, when sales fell from €87 million to €54 million. This decline reflected the sale of the company, which was split into two units: a consumer-oriented gardening division, and an industrial division supplying other companies. The former was acquired by Catral (owned by Blackpearl and JP Morgan) and remains profitable, while the latter was acquired by Abac Capital, headed by Oriol Pinya. The transaction for both units closed at around €110 million, including debt, according to informed sources. Sellers were four families: Besas, Fort, Banús, and Clavell. The split of the two divisions explains the
sharp drop in turnover that year. Industry sources claim buying the industrial division separately was a mistake, since a significant share of the plant’s production was for the gardening unit. The industrial part of the former Inyecciones Termoplásticas Mas kept the Intermas name and has continued facing financial woes beyond declining sales. Losses in 2022 totaled €3.4 million, while 2023 saw a modest profit of €280,000. However, in 2024, losses reached €7 million, and for 2025, projections show a deficit of over €2 million.
Debt Commitments with Banks
Meanwhile, the company has had to refinance debt to meet obligations to banks. A debt renegotiation in 2022 allowed the company to stay current on payments, but sources now confirm Intermas has begun new talks with banks, fearing it won’t be able to meet its 2025 payments. Workers are demanding a viability plan, which they have yet to receive. Intermas told EL PERIÓDICO that it has been taking “multiple measures — commercial, financial, production-related, and operational — to ensure short-, medium-, and long-term viability and competitiveness.” The company said many of these efforts are aimed at solving structural issues that existed before the 2022 acquisition. One such measure was a €2.7 million capital increase last year, followed by another €1 million increase recently recorded in the Commercial Registry, to address what the company describes as a “difficult” situation.
