€1m needed to save Koxka/Kobol plants

SPAIN: A group of managers of the bankrupt Kobol and Koxka refrigeration factories are calling on former colleagues to help find the €1m needed to restart production.

The K Cooling Group, representing seven managers, have called on former employees to come up with a minimum contribution of €10,000 each to help reach the extra €1m it needs to reactivate the Koxka plant in Landaben, Pamplona, and the Kobol facility in Peralta, Navarra, according to the Noticias de Navarra. The K Group and other investors have already come up with €2m.

The troubled factories have been idle since entering administration last year, amidst employee claims of malpractice by its owners.

Both Koxka and Kobol were once part of the US company Hussmann. Koxka was founded in 1966, making chest freezers and remote cases for supermarkets. It was acquired by Hussmann International Inc in 1999. Kobol, a manufacturer of heat exchangers, was acquired the same year, and integrated into what then became Hussmann Koxka. The following year, Hussmann International was itself acquired by Ingersoll-Rand.

In October 2010, Hussmann Koxka, SL was bought by US investment company American Industrial Acquisition Corporation (AIAC).