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History

The origins and José Antonio San Martín.

Composiciones Rali was set up in 1962 in Bilbao, thanks to the combination of a local wealthy family’s investment and the profession of Arturo Ruiz, a linotypist from the first typesetting company in the north of the country, Cometit from Pamplona.

At the same time, José Antonio San Martín successfully completed his vocational training in Madrid. With a qualification as a typesetting technician and a year’s training in representative companies in the sector in the capital (Héroes, ABC, Estades, Bermejo and Pablo López), he landed in Bilbao in December 1963 at the age of 19, and started working in La Gaceta.

He combined his night shift with an afternoon job paid by the hour in a company called Composiciones Rali. However he soon started to see an opportunity in supplying to printers and started up Josan with a very old linotype machine rented from Boston in Barakaldo.

Towards the end of 1964, Composiciones Rali crossed his path again, now located in new facilities in Particular de Costa Street. This time it was permanent, despite his imminent departure for the military service.

After graduating and returning to the company at the head of the workshop, he soon saw his independence limited by the active presence of the family owners. Finally, they decided to sell him the company in view of the inevitable separation, offering him long term payment facilities. Rali had four linotype machines running 24 hours over three shifts.

Composiciones Rali.

Over the following 30 years, José Antonio San Martín proved to have an extraordinary ability to react when faced with problems and attracting clients and projects which have provided a large and continuous volume of work, such as, at different times, the UNED, the Congreso Mundial Vasco, Fundación Mapfre or the publishing house CISS and the digitalization of judgements for La Ley.

Rali is the protagonist of our graphic history, a constant reference and pioneer of phototypesetting in the 70’s and 80’s and desktop publishing in the 90’s. It has been present in the whole country thanks to branches in Pamplona, Seville, Valencia and Madrid, to provide an on-site service to large clients. It is also the mother Company of the photomechanical Tratex, originally focused on promotional and advertising products, with Rali specializing in the publishing market.

Phototypesetting.

The introduction of the new phototypesetting systems was gradual. It started with electro-mechanics in 1971 with an optical lens system to expand the body of the types and titles. The strong and prolonged investment is compensated thanks to the fact that Rali successfully lengthens the life of its linotype machines.

Electronic phototypesetting appeared in the mid 1970’s, equipped with automatisms and was therefore quick and reliable. On different media, from punched tape to magnetic tape, with diskettes for data storage. The different systems appeared in five year cycles, with specific imagesetters: Photon, M system, Berthold, Pentax and 8000 system.

The most advanced systems included automatic layout and Rali did not take long to take the leap to Desktop publishing. Initially it was a market limited to professionals, until Adobe PostScript technology applied to the Apple Macintosh system made it accessible to the average user.

21st Century. Full prepress: Text and image.

José Antonio San Martín retired in 1999. He rejected an offer from the Zeta Group who were interested in the European portfolio and reached an agreement with his trusted staff to provide continuity.

Before that, in 1996, Rali started working with the newly established Publications Office of the European Union under the guidance of the Sales Manager Evelio González. To overcome the stigma of the Southern countries, we had to conform to the Quality Management Regulations UNE-EN ISO 9001. Rali was the first Spanish Company in the sector to do so and it is currently the only Spanish graphic provider of the European Union. It is the official European market with its healthy margins which compensates for the saturated national market.

In 2005, Rali was the awardee of the auxiliary phototypesetting of the Official Gazette of Biscay, a tender which was renewed four years later and ensures a monthly income which is key for us in these last difficult years.

Despite the painful and costly restructuring, Rali has not given up. We are not just waiting. In fact, now we have a great opportunity as there aren’t any companies left with the expertise and potential demanded by publishing houses, nor with the service culture needed by the Public Administration.

Since January 2014, the Official State Gazette Agency and Wolters Kluwer have provided constant orders to our machinery room, located in the same building in one of the few industrial streets in the centre of Bilbao to which Composiciones Rali moved to 50 years ago.

Philosophy

Rali, the Added Value of Graphic Arts, since 1962.

Composiciones Rali is facing the revolutionary technological scenario and new market rules by being faithful to the formula that has made it a reference in the sector: respect for the profession and the way things are done. Commitment and service.

Our staff team have all carried out their graphic training in Rali. The veterans started out as apprentices and they are the ones in charge of training the young members of the team in a continuous training process.

Rali relies on a committed team of permanently hired professionals. They are all working towards a common aim with the same aspirations, always willing to collaborate beyond their undertaken obligations. For this reason, our involvement is not limited to public tenders or orders; quite the opposite, we feel actively involved and are always ready to look for solutions.

Our secret lies in the multidisciplinary nature of our human resources in that each person’s participation is neither indispensable nor exclusive. This is where Rali becomes the ideal partner. Our stability allows us to work at our best from the very first day; our flexibility offers unlimited possibilities for the organization of the work.

The best way of obtaining top results is with communication. This is why we are in constant touch with the client, providing specific information about the work in process.

Rali is ready to take a step forward, based on accumulated experience, growing willingness and the aim to improve. And a virtue that differentiates us from our competitors: Rali communicates. Human quality applied in the long term, a team with values that is focused on quality work and client satisfaction

Staff Team

Technical resources

Rali is located in Costa Street in the centre of Bilbao, with a surface area of 300 m2, distributed into offices, the workshop (Publishing, Official Gazettes and Colour) and changing rooms; with the following resources:

Office units:

Administration, Customer service and Quality management.

3 top range Hewlett Packard PCs

1 OLIVETTI d-Copia 3504MF Multitask system (Printer-copier-scanner-fax)

1 SIEMENS Hipath 3000 Communications switchboard

Communication networks:

1 Own E-mail server, no capacity restriction

2 High speed ADSL and ISDN digital lines (Euskaltel and Telefonica)

1 FTP server for data transmission, in PC and Mac platforms

Servers: Data storage centres and document flow. Back up copies.

1 Hewlett Packard ML 350 Pentium IV 3000 Mail server

1 HP Proliant ML350T3 (TV) XE Server

1 DELL Poweredge T610 Server

Design and layout stations, as well as auxiliary equipment:

Graphic design, composition and page layout under professional image processing and editing software, in Macintosh and PC platforms.

8 Power Mac G5 Dual 2GHz

9 iMAC 21'5” Intel Core i52,7GHz

6 Support PCs + Hewlett Packard Desktop printer

1 OKI Executive Series ES 8460 MFP Multitask photocopier:

Colour printer and scanner, double sided, with automatic feeder

Photomechanics:

Scanning of documents and slides. Optical Character Recognition (OCR).

1 AGFA SnapScan 1236 Scanner with slides module

1 EPSON Perfection 4490 P Scanner

1 HELL Chroma Graph S 3300 Cylindrical Scanner

Software and output module for colour proofs under European quality standards.

1 AGFA Apogee X Proofer + EPSON Stylus Pro 9880 Colour printer

Creation of blueprints. Posters: maximum width 1 m.

1 AGFA Serpa 70 x 100 Plotter

1 AGFA designjet 5500 P Plotte

Integrated policy

Composiciones Rali es una empresa de Artes Gráficas especializada en la preimpresión integral, con amplia experiencia en el mercado y avalada por la satisfacción y fidelidad de sus clientes.

Con el propósito de ofrecer mayor valor añadido, implantamos un modelo de gestión basado en las Normas Internacionales ISO 9001 (Gestión de la Calidad) e ISO 14001 (Gestión Ambiental).

La Dirección es responsable de impulsar la implantación de un Sistema de Gestión Integrado, dotando a la empresa de los recursos necesarios para su correcto funcionamiento, para minimizar los impactos ambientales de sus procesos y productos, y para la mejora continua de la eficacia del sistema, cuyos principios son los siguientes:

  • Cumplir con toda Reglamentación y Legislación aplicables, así como todo requisito que la organización considere exigible.
  • Establecer un sistema que cuantifique en la medida de lo posible el grado de satisfacción de los clientes y del resto de partes interesadas, con el fin de alcanzar el cumplimiento de sus necesidades y expectativas.
  • Establecer objetivos de calidad y medioambiente que promuevan la mejora continua de nuestro desempeño, mediante una gestión centrada en los procesos y en el pensamiento basado en riesgos y oportunidades.
  • Asignar eficazmente las funciones y responsabilidades de nuestro personal, y fomentar su compromiso y el desarrollo de sus competencias.
  • Comunicar, concienciar y motivar al personal y grupos de interés sobre la importancia de implantar, desarrollar y mantener nuestro Sistema de Gestión Integral.
  • Promover la creación de un ambiente estimulante de trabajo en el que cada individuo esté comprometido con la obtención de los más altos niveles de calidad personal.
  • Proteger el ecosistema mediante un uso responsable de los recursos naturales.

La aplicación de esta Política exige la integración activa de todo el equipo humano de la organización. Para conseguirlo, la Dirección considera prioritarias la motivación y la formación para la Calidad y el correcto desempeño medioambiental , velando por la prevención de los impactos ambientales adversos y ayudando a proteger el entorno natural.

Esta Política sirve como marco de referencia para establecer y revisar los objetivos de Calidad y Medio Ambiente. Esta Política está implantada, mantenida al día, revisada y comunicada a todos los empleados.

En Bilbao, a 19 de noviembre de 2020.

Environmental performance

Presentamos los datos que reflejan el avance del desempeño ambiental en Composiciones Rali durante los años 2020, 2021 y 2022 en los consumos de agua y de electricidad:

Indicadores de comportamiento ambiental:

Unidad

2020

2021

2022

Consumo agua/persona

m³/personas

2,6667

0,7143

1,4375

Consumo eléctrico/horas trabajadas

kWh/horas

7,4912

7,7978

9,4889