Gaztenpresa supports and develops a wide range of initiatives aimed at creating and consolidating the employment of people who have embarked on their own work project. Laboral Kutxa's employment foundation has just presented its Annual Report to the media in Bilbao. According to the data provided in it, in 2020 the foundation has made a greater value contribution to society than ever before.

The President of Gaztenpresa, Ibon Urgoiti, emphasized the importance of the Foundation's activity, recalling that it has been a very difficult year for companies. Urgoiti said: "Even though the economic and social climate is extremely serious, Gaztenpresa has once again managed to adapt its activity to help entrepreneurs when we need it most."

He also highlighted the work done by Gaztenpresa over its 25-year history: “Gaztenpresa is not a morning flower. On the contrary, it has left a deep and lasting mark in this quarter of a century: it has helped to create almost 6,000 companies, which have employed 10,800 people ”.

On the other hand, the Vice-President and Minister of Labor and Employment of the Basque Government, Idoia Mendia, praised the role of the Gaztenpresa Foundation as part of its overall strategy to promote entrepreneurship. In his words, the aim of this strategy is to "make things easier for those who make their ideas a reality by creating wealth and employment".

Mendia mentioned the actions planned by the Basque Government in this area and, in particular, those developed by its Department in the areas of Employment, Social Economy and the Profession. He recalled that through these actions, the public administration provides the necessary support to entrepreneurs, "to overcome the obstacle of fear of failure."

Economic transformation

The economy is constantly revolutionizing, driven by demographic, energy and socio-sanitary transformations, and the vice president believes this revolution will bring new opportunities. With things like this, “we need to attract and retain talent,” through formulas that promote quality employment; such as promoting public-private partnerships, “collective entrepreneurship” and collaboration in projects between entrepreneurs.

Afterwards, the director of Gaztenpresa, Inma Ramos, briefly mentioned the activity carried out by the foundation at last year's event. According to him, 2020 has been "an unusual year, unbelievably bad". The confinement that began on March 13 last year led to a change in consumer habits, as well as a deep crisis in the traditional businesses in which Gaztenpresa has a presence. Therefore, we had to change our priorities: the creation of new companies was secondary, and helping Gaztenpresa to help entrepreneurs manage shock and uncertainty was the main goal. “The main priority has been to help start-ups to deal with the onslaught of the crisis,” he explained.

In any case, Gaztenpresa has helped to set up 256 small companies in 2020, creating 504 new full-time jobs. Most of these new businesses are focused on the service sector (75%) and trade (25%). With regard to the legal form chosen to form new companies, 80% of the companies have been created in an individual format, and the remaining 20% ​​are distributed as follows: one in four is a cooperative and three out of four are limited companies.

This is the profile of the person who decides to embark on their project: the average 39-year-old is unemployed (97%). The majority of people who go to Gaztenpresa are men (58%) and do not have a university degree (84%).