The Gran Canaria company Adventia Pharma is one of the finalists of the National SME of the Year Award convened by Banco Santander and the Spanish Chamber of Commerce. This Gran Canaria company will compete with five others to win this award next Thursday, March 12. Specifically, it will be disputed with Ibarmia Gestinver, from Guipúzcoa; Idai Nature, from Valencia; European Generators, from A Coruña; and Señorío de Montanera, from Badajoz.

In addition, in this contest four second prizes will be awarded. In one of them, which is being convened for the first time, another company from the Islands competes, the Gran Canaria Elmasa Tecnología del Agua, which is opting for the second prize for Responsible Company, a category in which it will fight against Avalon Information Technology, from Madrid; Dental Academy of Mallorca, of the Balearic Islands; and Division of Agricultural and Livestock Investments, of Valencia.

In the Internationalization category, the finalists are Forest Chemical Group, from Alicante; Aiuken Solutions, from Madrid; Lascaray, from Álava; and IDE Electric, from Zaragoza. In the Digitization and Innovation category, Zennio Avance y Tecnología, from Toledo; Cofrico, from A Coruña; Housfy Real State, from Barcelona; and Docriluc, from Córdoba. Finally, the second prize for Training and Employment will be disputed by Drylock Technologies, from Segovia; Joselín Sobaos, from Cantabria; Ecotisa, from Salamanca and Acuña y Fombona, from Asturias.

More than 1,500 registered

The SME of the Year Award recognizes the performance of small and medium-sized Spanish companies, whose activity is essential for the creation of employment and wealth at the local level. In this third edition, a total of 1,552 companies from the 50 provinces and the Autonomous City of Ceuta registered, with the participation of 42 territorial chambers of commerce.

The jury that will choose the winners will be chaired by the president of the Spanish Chamber, José Luis Bonet, and the CEO of Santander Spain, Rami Aboukhair; the director of Companies and SMEs of Banco Santander Spain, Octavio Ramírez; the general director of the Chamber of Spain, Inmaculada Riera; the CEO of Prisa Noticias, Alejandro Martínez Peón; the economic correspondent for El País, Miguel Ángel Noceda; and the director of Public Policy-General Secretariat of Banco Santander Spain and president of the Commission of SMEs of the Chamber of Spain, Isabel Puig Ferrer, in her capacity as secretary of the jury.

Award-winning companies

The research work of the pharmaceutical company Adventia Pharma, which dedicates 10% of its workforce to research and development tasks, and which has a workforce of 70 employees, was already worthy of the 2019 SME of the Year award granted by the Chamber in November de Comercio de Gran Canaria and Banco Santander, in collaboration with LA PROVINCIA and the Spanish Chamber of Commerce.

In this same contest, Elmasa Tecnología del Agua S.A. was recognized for its social responsibility, which is about to complete half a century of existence, has 40 employees and is the main patron of the Foundation Amurga.