The next time a person visits a cinema, theater, auditorium, conference, press room, or a VIP box at a football stadium, they can notice who crafted each chair and who sits in it. If the chair dates back a few years, a phone number with the prefix 941 might still appear on the page. If not, the name Ezcaray or its logo shows up somewhere. Ascender, Ezcaray Seat, or Euro Seat may be engraved on the seat. Hailing from Ezcaray, a town in La Rioja with a population under 2,200 and known for its ski resort, mountain trails, and the double Michelin-starred Echaurren restaurant, these three companies have expanded into theaters and other venues worldwide, where audiences lean forward to watch performances.
In 1955, a cooperative named Sociedad Cooperativa Obrera de Ezcaray was founded by 17 men, each contributing a capital of 100 pesetas. An additional 47,000 pesetas were invested to purchase machinery and launch the business, intending to create the leading cinema seating factory in Spain. The founders already possessed experience from the Closed Safe Chair venture. The cooperative’s initial seats were handcrafted from solid wood sourced from the Sierra de la Demanda, the region where Ezcaray is located. Juan Carlos Sáez, Head of Sales for the revamped cooperative, which later became Ezcaray Internacional and is now Ezcaray Seating, notes that the material now mostly comes from suppliers in Navarra and the Basque Country.
Everything moved smoothly for the cooperative as it prepared to mark forty years of resilience in a shrinking industry. Yet at the century’s end, in 1994, two longtime members, Juan Carlos Úbeda and Gonzalo Robredo, chose to leave and establish their own company, Euro Seating. The pair were joined by Valvanera García and Marta Crespo, with Robredo describing the split as a personal disagreement among partners, while Sáez offered a more measured view about possible tensions.
Robredo, who mortgaged homes and all they owned to fund the first injection molds, later became the European leader of Euro Seating and regarded the company as one of the world’s premier players in the sector. Among Ezcaray’s three surviving sofa manufacturers, Euro Seating ranks as the most active post-crisis, driven in part by the collapse of other local furniture makers.
According to the 2021 accounts filed with the Trade Registry and reviewed by El Periódico de España, Euro Seating reported over 1000 entries in that year, with 11.6 million euros in chair and armchair manufacturing and sales. More than 80% of the revenue came from international markets, including 4.1 million euros from the European Union and 5.5 million from other regions. By 2022, these figures had grown to 13.3 million. The company has installations in major venues such as Paris La Défense Arena, the Alfredo Harp Helú stadium in Mexico City, and the San Mamés stadium in Bilbao. It has also supported multiple theaters and cultural venues, including the Lope de Vega on Gran Vía in Madrid and the Campos Elíseos Theatre in Bilbao, with innovative seating systems that rotate or conceal seats when not in use. Ascender has played a role in several of these high-profile projects, collaborating with renowned architects and designers.
Breakups and their impact
The cooperative’s second major split occurred in 2004. New markets and new materials entered the picture, including expansions into Malaysia and Singapore. Four partners left the organization to pursue independent ventures, determined to leverage the knowledge gained within the cooperative. They carried forward expertise in metalwork, carpentry, design, and logistics, but the move left a gap in the original structure.
Personal perspectives on the split
Friends who remained in the cooperative meet up occasionally, share a glass of wine, and avoid discussing business matters, as the topic remains uncomfortable. Juan Carlos Sáez, now Head of Sales at Ezcaray International, reflects on the sense that the industry environment might have benefited from unity, and he notes the potential for Ezcaray to become a dominant global force if the partnerships had stayed intact.
Robredo and Úbeda shifted focus to high-end customization, delivering premium seating solutions to venues that demanded exceptional materials like leather, such as the Palacio de Congresos de Valencia. Their main competitors on the international stage include Figueras Seating in Catalonia and Poltrona Frau in Italy. Domestically, the company continues to grow, while Ezcaray Seating emphasizes a national export footprint in addition to its domestic market. In Spain, the company executed significant installations for Embajadores cinemas, the Teatro Real, and the Renoirs, with plans to re-cover rooms in Plaza de España and Princesa.
The industry now favors seat-oriented and motorized theaters. The executive leadership notes a notable uptick in Spanish projects during the current year, reflecting renewed activity in cinema and performance spaces.
Juan Carlos Sáez acknowledges the strain created by competing visions within Ezcaray’s local industry. He believes the town could have become the continent’s leading seat producer if there had been more unity, claiming that the combined effort of Ezcaray’s three companies would have produced a truly global business. Across both national and international markets, the combined sales of Ezcaray Seating, Euro Seating, and Ascender reached 25.4 million euros in the past year.
The challenges faced by cooperatives are well understood. Sáez notes that a cooperative can resemble a difficult ordeal, with people who care and those who prefer to stay comfortable. Disagreements arise, and not everyone agrees on the path forward. Those who still work in Ezcaray Seating describe the situation as emotionally charged, yet acknowledge the value of open discussion among partners and employees in navigating industry shifts.
Still, for employees and friends who continue to share time in Ezcaray, social gatherings are common. The sentiment remains that a cohesive industry is essential for the town’s vitality, because if the chair and seating industry falters, Ezcaray itself could lose a portion of its identity and economic foundation. As Sáez puts it, the town’s future is closely tied to the success of its seat manufacturers.
In Ezcaray, with a year-round population around two thousand and a fluctuating tourist influx that can surge to twenty thousand, the fate of the local employment and economy remains intertwined with the success of its seating companies. The town’s future, like the industry’s resilience, depends on sustaining investment, maintaining skilled work, and preserving the craft that keeps the seats coming to life in cultural spaces across the world.