Francisco Tané Sala (R.I.P.) died in June 2016 at the age of 87. He was responsible for continuing the family business that had been founded by his father in 1921. He was the creator and promoter of TANÉ, S.A., a company that later developed into today’s TANÉ HERMETIC, S.L.

Francisco Tané was a discreet man with a broad vision of the future and one of the pioneers of industrialisation and the modernisation of plant equipment, specialised in doors, for the food processing industry in Spain.

He was the man behind the transformation of a small village carpentry, just a few yards away from the main square of the town of Olot, which is still there, representing TANÉ HERMETIC, S.L., a company with a worldwide reputation.

 From the early days of the business founded by his father and until the 1970s, the main income derived from traditional carpentry projects. In the 1950s they began to construct doors for local sausage factories, which were initially made from wood, with cork as their main insulating material. Thus began a new line of business, one that was to bring with it excellent results.

Together with Miguel Jal Duaso from the company LIFES (a pioneering business in the manufacture of industrial dryers for sausages), they developed the first artificial dryers, in addition to the first hermetic hinged doors.

In Spain at that time, there were no fittings available for pivoting doors and they were manufactured by a local locksmith. The first accessories were imported from abroad (mainly France) and thus began the business partnership with FERMOD first, and with FERRO-FRIO, S.A. later (today CAFF, S.A.), which was just starting up.

In the mid-1960s, at an international trade fair, he discovered the Dutch firm J. MARKUS, which had invented a hermetic seal for sliding doors. This innovative system totally changed all hermetic sealing technology from that moment on.

A personal and business relationship began with Jan Jacob Markus, the owner and manager of the company J. MARKUS. Initially he began as the firm’s exclusive representative for Spain and Portugal, importing ready-made doors, and later the majority of those accessories that were unavailable in Spain. The doors were later manufactured entirely in the workshops of Olot (Girona). 

At that time, introducing MARKUS sliding doors into the Spanish market was extremely difficult, despite the advanced technology they featured, as their price was high with respect to already-existing pivoting doors.

One of the tricks for introducing this type of door onto the market was that MARKUS had constructed miniature scale models, which exactly reproduced the sliding doors that the company manufactured; in both manual and automatic control models. They were used like a showroom that could be taken to the client, transported in heavy suitcase-like boxes, whose unique contents were displayed, not without difficulties, throughout Spain. To demonstrate the operation of the doors’ automatic pneumatic device, a tank of compressed air was needed – which was refilled at petrol stations. The tank itself was made from a camping gas bottle.

All the hermetically-sealed doors on today’s market have adapted the closing system invented by J. Markus.

Over these years, which passed with their fair share of efforts and sacrifices, while manufacturing doors in his Olot factory, business began to grow and he moved his production base to a new location in La Vall de Bianya (Girona). On land covering 30,000 m2, and which currently holds 8,000 m2 of constructed facilities.

These new facilities meant that the demands of a large number of clients in both the national and overseas markets could be met, which made it a world leader in this door manufacturing sector.

Francisco Tané Sala, Paco to his friends, was an independent, discreet and gregarious. He was a self-made man with a finely-honed, old-school intuition, with a dedicated attitude to work, a restless character and an innovative spirit. With the fortune that follows those who seek it and who believe in what they do, with his commitment and desire for quality and what is good, he created everything that TANE HERMETIC, S.L. stands for today.

For him, his life was the company, he used to refer to it as ‘home’, when he spoke of the factory, and although he had been retired for over 20 years, not a day went by when he did not show an interest in the business. During his last few months, when his mobility and health were limited, he continued to ask, several times a day, about the state of the market and if everything was going well.

We are left with his legacy, with his teaching, with his love of work and the good life. Rest in peace Paco Tané Sala.

                                                        La Vall de Bianya, July 2016.