From a letterpress shop to the first offset machine
At Grup Maculart we have experienced the transformation of the graphic arts sector first hand. The beginnings of the company date back to the mid-sixties, when the founder of Grup Maculart, José Majós, started a small typography workshop, located in the Poblenou district of Barcelona. Equipped with a Heidelberg Minerva printing press and with only three employees, the company begins to serve companies in the area with commercial work, mainly for the pharmaceutical industry, but also for other sectors such as finance and automotive.
With his entrepreneurial vision and convinced of the project he has in hand, José Majós learns the trade. Thanks to his commercial vocation, the workshop grew rapidly and moved first to premises located in Nou Barris, and then to the Clot district of Barcelona.
With a growing customer portfolio, Grup Maculart moves its workshops to a 450 m2 warehouse in Sant Adrià del Besòs. This is an important milestone for the company, which now employs around 20 people. This is when the first Heidelberg offset press is installed to improve service to customers in terms of both quality and speed.
: Already specialising in the pharmaceutical industry, the company is set up as a limited company under the name of Gràfiques Maculart. Reflecting its status as a family business, the name is created from the surnames of our founder (Majós) and his wife (Cullell), together with the Graphic Arts sector (Ma-Cul-Art). Since then, Grup Maculart has followed a path of constant growth and improvement.
This is when the continuity of Grup Maculart as a family business becomes a reality with the incorporation of the Majós sons into the company. Trained in graphic design, David Majós joins the technical office while his brother Albert Majós is part of the commercial and product innovation department.
We aim to comply with all sector requirements, and this year marks the achievement of the ISO standard. We implement an Integrated Management System (IMS) that allows us to continue growing in an organised and efficient way, respecting the requirements of the pharmaceutical sector.
A new milestone in the history of Grup Maculart. . For the first time, we integrate die-cutting and gluing machines into our structure to offer a comprehensive service and maintain control of production. This is an example of the company’s investment policy, linked from the beginning to the needs of our customers, to innovation in the printing industry and also to the requirements of the pharmaceutical sector in order to provide the best service.
Grup Maculart begins a new chapter in its history by moving its headquarters and facilities to Cerdanyola del Vallès (Barcelona). The objective is clear: to increase our production capacity and enhance our design and pre-print services. This new phase, led by Albert Majós, is decidedly innovative in approach and follows the investment strategy initiated by his father.
We acquire new warehouses in Cerdanyola del Vallès that increase our facilities to 3,000 m2.
At the same time, we create the POS and printed advertising division of Grup Maculart to respond to the need for OTC pharmaceutical products that can be advertised to the general public.
True to our spirit of continuous improvement, we invest in an IGEN4 machine to complement our traditional machinery and to be able to offer new alternatives to our customers: customisation, small print runs… All with the aim of continuing our founder’s mission and ensuring we can offer the best solution whatever our customers’ visions may be.
As part of our growth strategy, we take over the company Estoig Farmacéutic S.L., which specialises in packaging for the pharmaceutical sector, incorporating both the staff and the machinery. This acquisition allows us to significantly increase production and this year, for the first time, we reach the milestones of 69 million packages and 77 million patient information leaflets produced annually.
We continue to invest in machinery in order to improve the performance of the production system and increase our production capacity:
This new equipment contributes to the continued growth of the company, which now has three times the workforce of the 1970s and employs around 60 people.
To strengthen the production of pharmaceutical patient information leaflets, one of our key products, we acquire a rotary offset leaflet printing press: the Rotatek RK 250 Plus.
Reflecting the company’s solid position, we expand our facilities by 1,000 m2 in the same premises in Cerdanyola del Vallès (Barcelona). In June of this year, David Majós is appointed manager of Grup Maculart, ensuring the continuity of the company as a family business.
In a year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, at Grup Maculart we demonstrate our dedication to service, meeting delivery deadlines and responding to the changing needs of our customers, the pharmaceutical laboratories that have been key to managing the health crisis in Spain. With a view to the future, we invest in machinery upgrades and acquire a new OPTIMA-K 105 KBA die-cutter equipped with ejector and blanking, to continue to meet the challenges of the pharmaceutical industry in the most efficient way and at the highest levels of quality.
We strengthen our commitment to the environment with the installation of 445 solar panels at our Cerdanyola del Vallès plant. With an output of 240.3 kWp, they enable us to reduce CO2 emissions by more than 114,200 kg/year, which is equivalent to the CO2 absorbed by 5,700 trees. A key milestone in our history that points the way to a more sustainable future.
More than 50 years after our foundation, we are still driven by our spirit of continuous improvement and expand our die-cutting section with the new stripping machine.