Ramón Alejandro, president of Saica Group, has been awarded with an OBE for services to the environmental sector.
The honour was awarded by the UK ambassador in Spain, Hugh Elliott, during a ceremony at Saica’s HQ in Zaragoza. The presentation followed a visit to the Saica paper mill in El Burgo de Ebro, also attended by representatives of the UK’s Department for International Trade.
Saica entered the UK market in 2006 with the purchase of corrugated packaging plants. In the coming months Saica Pack will be opening a £50 million flagship facility in Livingston.
Ramón Alejandro said, “It is a true privilege to receive this honour. We have had a very special relationship with the United Kingdom since we entered the UK market in 2006. Today we can proudly say we operate from 23 sites in the UK – more than any other country outside Spain – and employ over 2,300 people there.
“Since our entry, we have invested more than £700 million into the UK market and we continue to invest for the long-term.”
British ambassador Hugh Elliott added, “It is an honour to see Ramón Alejandro appointed as an Honorary Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE), for his services to the environmental sector in the United Kingdom. 16 years have already passed since Saica entered the British market and since then its business has expanded extraordinarily: today Saica is one of the largest Spanish investors in the UK creating sustainable packaging solutions at its 23 plants in the UK, that have created more than 2,000 jobs in the last 10 years. But Saica’s contribution to the UK goes beyond jobs and economic growth. It also plays a key role in the environment and in the fight against climate change, making the circular economy and ‘zero waste’ their raison d’être.'”
