The three Casas siblings — a lawyer, a forestry engineer and an interior designer — are at the helm of Síndar, a third-generation carpentry workshop based in the town of Alcover.
Initially, it was the typical carpentry workshop working for private clients, builders, developers and a very local customer base. According to Gerard Casas, the manager: “Badalona was already a long way away for us”. But the economic, financial and property crisis forced them to rethink the business and to begin a process of internationalisation, investing money in consultancy and travel. “Exporting was a tricky challenge for us, because we’d never done it before, and the logistics — manufacturing everything in Alcover — were hard to manage,” says the company’s manager.
But as the old saying goes, you reap what you sow, and their first international project was a luxury hotel in Morocco. From there it was on to France, Belgium, and even a large-scale, complex project: the government building of Turkmenistan.
Word of mouth did its work and they carried out the carpentry section of the Emir of Qatar’s palace in Morocco, and from that point on, luxury hotels and palaces in Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates…
They have worked with some of the most internationally renowned architects, such as Foster and Partners, Ateliers Jean Nouvel and Koichi Takada Architects.
“We specialise in the complex, in the unique, thanks to having a very strong, versatile technical office and highly skilled workshop staff,” says Gerard Casas. “Right now, we’re only competitive in the luxury segment, where we’re specialists.”
They are currently working in the United States (the Hamptons, Miami…), Andorra, Ibiza… where they send
workers and pieces from the factory in Alcover, with logistics they now have well under control. “Trust is essential in any business, but earning it in the luxury segment is hard, because they demand a great deal of you and expect a great deal from you.”
Technology in the service of craftsmanship, creating unique ideas in wood.