Fifty years ago, an average Spaniard could buy a Seat 133, an important part of which had surely been made with steel from Ensidesa and aluminum from Indesal. With that vehicle, if you had a good economic position, you could go on vacation to one of the Entursa (National Tourism Company) establishments. Along the way, it would be strange if on the road you did not have to overtake one of Enasa's Pegaso trucks and even over your head you could fly over one of the Casa planes of national manufacture and design. These publicly owned companies were the heart of a huge part of the national economy, but now, the only brand that still exists and is widely known by those under 30 years old is Seat... For now.
Volkswagen's willingness to end the Seat brand if the numbers don't work out in 2029 is reminiscent of the process that a large number of privatized companies have followed in the first three decades of democracy. The immense industrial conglomerate that formed the National Institute of Industry (INI) was little by little shedding the vast majority of the more than 200 companies that it owned at its peak. In fact, the brand of the institution initially created to channel the autarkic model of Francoism, which was first renamed Teneo and whose remains are now managed by the State Society of Industrial Participations (Sepi), is not preserved either.
The dismantling of the old INI was due to the need to adapt the economic model to the European liberalization promoted by Margaret Thatcher in the first place, to accelerate the reduction of debt to enter the first group of the euro in the second place or to create large international giants such as Airbus. The result of most processes was very similar: when there has been an international buyer and the decision center was outside of Spain, the brand has disappeared, with few exceptions.
The sale of Seat was one of the first privatizations of the second half of the 1980s. Volkswagen acquired the Spanish company from the State in 1986 for 80,000 million pesetas (less than 500 million euros).
In just over five years, companies that no longer exist today were transferred to the private sector, such as Entursa, which managed five-star hotels, selling its establishments to different private companies with the exception of three emblematic hotels that ended up as inns and disappeared in 1986, or Viajes Marsans, whose brand was rescued after its bankruptcy by a new entity last year.
The pace of privatization accelerated in the 90s, especially after the first PP government came to power. One of the first companies that illustrates well the erasure of the 'Spain brand' from its products after falling into international hands is Enasa, better known for the commercial brand of its Pegaso trucks. The group suffered a turbulent privatization process closely monitored by Brussels and ended up being acquired in 1991 by Fiat-Iveco. The Spanish company, created in 1946 to recover the Spanish automobile industry, saw how the name of its famous vehicles was disappearing and did not see the new century, although Iveco, the current owner, has made some commemorations.
During that period, the industry was one of the most affected by the reconversion. On the one hand, there was the closure of Altos Hornos de Vizcaya, which had been the largest company in Spain for much of the century, and, on the other, there was the privatization of large metallurgical conglomerates such as Ensidesa, which after several mergers ended up being Arcelor and finally being taken over by the Indian group Mittal until creating the current ArcelorMittal formula.
A much more controversial case was the privatization of Inespal, the large public aluminum giant that was sold to Alcoa due to the low price and whose size has been greatly reduced since it was under North American management, while the brand only remains present in the company's corporate name (Alcoa Inespal).
Disappeared in mergers
Another giant of the Spanish economy at that time, Tabacalera, also experienced its own privatization process through an IPO and merger, in its case with the French state company Seita to create Altadis, which would later be purchased by Imperial Brands. Currently, it persists solely as a sub-brand of the company's premium cigars. The mergers also ended up diluting the Argentaria brand. Privatized in the 90s through several IPOs, the financial institution merged with Banco Bilbao Vizcaya to create the current BBVA.
A unique case is that of Casa (Aeronautical Constructions). The national aircraft manufacturer was also partially privatized, but it did so within the framework of the creation of the Airbus consortium, in which, along with the Spanish seed, the German companies Dasa and Dornier and the French company Aérospatiale-Matra also joined to create the European giant to compete with Boeing.
One of those that has taken the longest to disappear has been Atesa, the rental vehicle company that, despite being privatized, remained on the Spanish streets until 2012, when it merged with Enterprise Holdings and disappeared from the roads, a fate that now hangs over Seat, perhaps the most symbolic brand of all.
