Swiss firm Arxada, which specialises in chemical products, has chosen the city of Barcelona as the location for its centre of excellence, which will serve the rest of its global facilities. “We are delighted to announce that our new centre of excellence will soon be opening in Barcelona, creating job opportunities in our finance, IT, business intelligence, human resources and commercial departments,” the company announced on LinkedIn.

The Swiss multinational actually plans to create around 100 jobs, according to a statement published on the Catalonia Trade & Investment website, and the company has in fact received support for these plans from Acció, the Government of Catalonia’s agency for business competitiveness.

Founding phase
The new centre of excellence, located in Torre Llevant at the BCN Fira District business park, will support the chemical company's growth on a global scale. Its work will focus on a number of operational areas, including those mentioned in the company’s LinkedIn announcement. So far, it has already recruited around 20 qualified professionals for the current founding phase. The official inauguration is scheduled for June this year.

The choice of the Catalan capital came after several candidate cities were considered. According to Arxada CEO Marc Doyle, “Barcelona is fast becoming a destination of choice for leading technology companies and is attracting many bright people from around the world. This is what tipped the balance in Barcelona's favour.” In terms of factors directly affecting the centre’s future operations, Doyle stressed that Barcelona “gives us access to an exciting pool of emerging talent”.

Innovative solutions
Arxada is a multinational company that specialises in manufacturing chemical products and coming up with innovative solutions, all supported by the application of science. The company focuses on numerous end markets, with particular strengths in human health and nutrition, home and personal care, paints and coatings, and wood protection.

The company is based in Basel, Switzerland's third largest city. It currently employs over 3,600 people worldwide and has a presence in 35 countries, with 25 production plants and 13 research and development centres.

^{Photo: Catalonia Trade & Investment}