THE MAN WHO TALKED TO PUMPS

One of the offices in Emica´s technical department is dominated by a portrait of a man who poses with a pen in his hands. I asked about the painting. Who is he?

In reply, I was informed that Felix was the guiding light of this 122-year-old company, and it was Felix that has made Emica what it is today.

He was a native of the Encartaciones, (a Biscayan region), and he was always engaged with pumps. He used to supervise the plant with his beige jacket, to wear a tie or handle a gauge. Félix must have been quite a guy. He very jealously guarded his clientele and knew just how to always surround himself with good and highly qualified  professionals. He always kept an eye on the market, whilst keeping both feet very firmly on the ground at all times.

Those who knew Felix say that he literally “talked to the pumps”, that it was very hard for him to say “no” to a client and that he was an “inventor” famed for saying “we can work on that”.

He suffered the terrible floods of ‘83, when almost everything was lost and, along with many other colleagues, he overcame a thousand more adversities, whilst continuing to write our history. When he took over the company in the ‘90s, on the site where Emica now stands, sitting on a high point overlooking the sea and the mining past of this land Felix loved so much, it is safe to say that Felix was a very good Biscayan.

Having come out of the void he left us with a decade ago, we know that Fekix would be extremely proud of who we are and what Emica has and is becoming today and, in his honour, we will keep on "talking to our pumps" for many years to come.