Focusing on profitability and sustainability

 

Nieves García joined Teknia in 2024 as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Group to lead the financial area at a time of growth and important challenges for the company. Her professional experience, developed over many years in the automotive sector, has a strong focus on strategy, financial planning, corporate finance and M&A.

One of the pillars of the ‘Moving Teknia 2025‘ strategic plan is profitability to guarantee the viability of the company. How do we approach this strategic pillar in the current context of the automotive sector? The current contraction of the sector is a further argument for a stronger emphasis on the fundamentals of this pillar. We must not only be profitable and viable in the short term, but also take the necessary measures so that, when this current scenario in the sector has passed, we will be equally or better prepared than before and will be able to face other strategic decisions with a good financial foundation.

What measures are we talking about? What are they and what is the aim of their roll-out?
Since the middle of the year, we have rolled out a plan with shock measures that includes all kinds of actions within the financial area: from measures to improve process efficiency that will lead to significant savings, the improvement in the digitalisation of information flows in each and every one of Teknia’s plants in order to have real-time information or a very strategic and studied investment criterion that considers different scenarios, based on profitability and sustainability in the short, medium and long term. We are working, not only because of the context, but also because of our own business vision on the progressive improvement of financial ratios and KPIs, which accompany and reflect who we are and who we want to be in the future: benchmarks in quality and sustainability, reliable for our customers, innovative in our products and services, and generators of stable, quality employment and socio-economic impact; and all of this must be reflected in a strong and solid balance sheet.

Teknia also has a Sustainability Plan in full roll-out. What is the place of green and sustainable financing in the company?

It is a tool to be explored in depth in the coming years. It certainly establishes a clear synergy between our ESG performance, on which we are putting a lot of effort, and taking advantage of more advantageous funding lines linked to this performance. At the end of 2024, Teknia had two policies-loans linked to sustainability objectives, specifically to emissions reduction, for a value of 9 million euros.