1950s
In February 1951 in the city of Ripoll, Mr Eduardo Soler and Mr. José Palau started the company Soler & Palau S.A at a point in time where shortages of raw materials had created a challenging economic environment.
Adopting an oval shape as its company logo in which the initials S&P are positioned, the slogan “S&P a new brand of the highest quality” clearly identified the initial philosophy of the company.
The business started to grow and achieved good results with the successive launches of the HBT, HST, HSB and TBT series of fan and single-phase controllers all of which were targeted for industrial and commercial applications. The HC and HSM fan series then followed intended for more residential applications.
In April 1953 the first product catalogue was published with the slogan “Shielded Ventilation Units,” with the intention of reinforcing the focus on quality of product. At the close of 1953 the logo was redesigned where a circle replaced the previous oval shape to enclose the letters S&P.
In 1955, coinciding with the first expansion of the factory, the first commercial office was opened in Valencia, followed in successive years by offices in the Basque Country, Murcia and Lérida.
The demands from the national market required the development of new products. New products were then launched including the PBT range of portable air moving fans; CST range of medium pressure centrifugal fans; HTB range of axial fans; and the VLO series of desktop air circulators.
In 1959 the Company focused on providing quality information about ventilation concepts, applications and products to industry professionals. The work led to the publication of a prospectus entitled “General Ventilation Standards”. This publication provided information on ventilation application performance recommendations along with data regarding the impact of sound and other associated criteria that effects the surrounding environment.
At the end of the first decade the Company was growing and a second expansion of the factory was required. At the close of 1960 the Company had a total of 116 employees and sales revenues of 32 million pesetas (around €200,000).
