Ramon Capella Armengol: a life fully dedicated to Telstar

Ramon Capella Armengol (July 6, 1931, Terrassa – December 17, 2020, Matadepera) founded Telstar in 1963 after discovering the viable opportunity to supply the national market with small vacuum pumps, necessary for the development of the first domestic fridges and industrial refrigerators during the early 1960’s. A project identified with the Telstar brand, inspired by the name of the world’s first commercial communications satellite launched the previous year.

A Mechanical industrial technical engineer from the Terrassa Industrial School, Ramon Capella developed a division in Telstar during the 1970’s dedicated to ultrafiltered air, necessary to build sterile areas for the pharmaceutical industry, clean rooms for the microelectronics industry and laminar flow cabinets for laboratories. In the 1980s, under the leadership of Ramon Capella Armengol the company significantly expanded its commercial network and created a new specific division for sales of high-tech equipment to Spain and Portugal. At the beginning of the 1990’s, Telstar developed and strengthened its export activity, creating a department exclusively dedicated to this purpose, which currently leads the company to operate in more than 100 countries. In 1998, a second generation of the family joined the management of the company, at which time an intense process of internationalization began. At the start of the year 2000, Telstar became a global company, made up of three business divisions whilst consolidating as a multinational family business group.

These milestones have led Telstar to be recognized today as one of the top 10 international suppliers for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry and a leading global brand in aseptic process solutions. Today there are a significant number of critical facilities in pharmaceutical plants and research centres developed by the company, as well as Telstar process equipment present in numerous laboratories, pharmaceutical production facilities and process plants in biotechnology companies around the world.

Ramon Capella Armengol was honoured by the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services of Terrassa and was awarded the Chamber Prize 2019 in recognition for Entrepreneurial Leadership throughout his extensive working life.