ISTOBAL celebrates 75 years in the car wash sector
The family-owned Spanish company its presence in Europe and continues its international expansion, with a total of 15 subsidiaries worldwide.
ISTOBAL celebrates its 75th anniversary this year working globally in vehicle washing and care solutions. From its origins in a small vehicle repair shop in 1950, the company has come a long way to consolidate its position as a multinational present in more than 80 countries and with 15 international subsidiaries.
Founded in L'Alcúdia (Valencia) by Ismael Tomás Alacreu, ISTOBAL was born with an entrepreneurial spirit that transformed a small family business into a global company. Now run by the third generation, the company is still run as a family business.
From its first greasing machine in the 1950s to the first manual pressure rollover designed and manufactured in Spain in 1963, ISTOBAL has tried to lead the way through innovation. In the 1970s, it introduced its first automatic brush rollover, and in the 1990s it revolutionised the sector with the M series of modular rollovers.
In 2001, ISTOBAL specialised exclusively in the vehicle wash and care sector, offering comprehensive solutions for installations of any size, from small units to large industrial projects.
Today, the Spanish equipment supplier has 15 wholly owned subsidiaries: Austria, Brazil, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as partnerships with distributors in other strategic regions. These operations ensure a presence in more than 80 countries.
"By establishing a direct presence in these countries, we seek to strengthen ties with our customers, foster more agile communication and offer quality solutions adapted to markets where we have decades of experience,” says Antonio Martínez, General Manager of the ISTOBAL Group.
ISTOBAL currently employs more than 1,000 professionals worldwide and has a network of distributors that guarantees its global presence, and has a strong R&D department working on innovations.
