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Driving Navarre's economy and accounting for 60 percent of its industrial activity are the food and drink (accounting for 21 percent of activity), auto assembly, parts and components (24 percent) and metal products (14 percent) sectors. In addition, paper and design (eight percent) and electronics (six percent) play a major role. Agriculture, historically important, still contributes about five percent of GDP, occupying niche markets in specialty vegetables and famous wines. Small and medium-sized companies, absorbing 74 percent industry workers, form the strong backbone of the economy. Navarre has a strong base of 3,000 industrial production companies employing 57,000 workers. Over 90 percent of the companies employ fewer than 50 workers, thus providing a big network of small companies in many sectors.
Moreover, Navarre is attractive to Spanish companies seeking relocation sites. A recent example is Sidras Eva, a cider producer employing 60, which moved to Navarre from a neighboring autonomous community. While its base of companies is large, wide-ranging and in many sectors very influential, Navarre has achieved a worldwide reputation by way of it 107 multinationals. Nothing speaks louder of Navarre's advantages than the references companies like TRW, Eaton and Guardian readily supply.
Over half of the foreign capital originates in France and Germany. The USA contributes close to 20 percent and the UK over 10 percent. Other major sources of investment capital are the Netherlands, Japan and Italy. Like the fast-growing vines in Navarre's vineyards, the word about Navarre's advantages spreads rapidly among multinationals. Perhaps they hear that industrial value added per employee is much higher than the Spanish average, or that Navarre has the highest level of certificates of quality (ISO 9000) in Spain. They learn of experiences like Guardian Industries, which got its $100 million greenfield investment in Tudela in operation in a very easy 11 months. Or TRW, which, through judicious application of lean manufacturing techniques, increased its revenue five-fold in just four years. The multinational investors discovered Navarre over three decades ago, but the genesis of large-scale industry can be pinpointed to 1967. That was the year British Leyland built its Morris assembly plant in Pamplona. Later, the factory was sold to SEAT.
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Several of Navarre's home-grown firms are globally influential. Viscofan is a multinational producer of artificial fiber products. Azkoyen is one of the most important vending machine makers in Europe. Koxka's industrial refrigerators appear in many supermarkets. Viscarret is a big cluster of companies producing paper and cardboard boxes.
The count of multinationals grows week by week. In 1993 and 1994, while most of Europe was in the depths of a recession, Navarre continued to land more and more foreign investments -- in fact, during those years it achieved Spain's highest level of investment per capita and ranked fourth in absolute terms.