It was 1978, and a visionary group of entrepreneurs led by Mr. Juan Manuel Durini Palacios, who had himself, ventured into the forest and timber industry 30 years earlier, founded Algomerados Cotopaxi Inc. (COTOPAXI). A year later, Aglomerados Cotopaxi Inc. starts production introducing the bonded particle board for the first time in Ecuador, using state of the art technology, imported from Germany. Towards the end of the year, the company included the first-line of boards coating in the country, giving more value to its products and expanding the range of colors to stay on top of national and international markets demands.

 

Since the very beginning, at COTOPAXI we were aware that the raw material must come from renewable forest resources and in 1978 the company made the first purchase of pine forests and land for plantations with the intention to encourage afforestation and reforestation.

 

To maximize forest resources to and to meet solid pine wood market, in 1995, COTOPAXI put together an Industrial Sawmill. Notably, all products of this production line are used as raw material on boards manufacturing.

 

In 1996, COTOPAXI install her second press, which can coat the boards with fine wood veneers. The following year, opened the largest and most important MDF plant in the Andean Region. For the novelty of the product, the company makes an aggressive media campaign and makes great efforts to train in the use of MDF in Ecuador, Peru and Colombia. These two activities pay off, because since 1999 the complete MDF production is sold and comes along with chipboard all the Andean Pact, Central, North America and some countries in Asia, Africa and Europe.

 

In 2002 the company began the cycle of certification and continuous improvement work, obtaining certification for its quality management system ISO 9001, the company currently is working to certify their environmental management systems ISO 14001 and its security system and OHSAS 18001 occupational health.

 

Next, In 2007 the system information technologies are updates, Oracle ERP now helps to improve and integrate processes. That very same year, the company decided to renew their brands and corporate image and comes up with a new slogan "Planting the Future" which represents the company's vision.

 

In 2008, COTOPAXI celebrates 30 years of life and strengthens its lead as the largest forest industry of Ecuador, with an annual production exceeding 130,000 cubic meters. It has a forest estate of 14,000 hectares, of which 11,000 hectares are planted with radiata pine and patula, and 20% is allocated to protected areas for conservation of ecosystems from the area, conservation of native forest protection watersheds and other environmental benefits.