They are not the doors that most of us mortals open and close in our homes. The ones manufactured by the company from Cáceres, Rapid Doors, are designed to protect hospital operating rooms and rooms in psychiatric centers, withstand the impact of stretchers and wheelchair traffic in health clinics and nursing homes, or withstand daily use and movement in facilities with many users, such as schools or sports centers.
What this company located in Las Capellanías manufactures are called technical doors and are intended for public works. They are specific and customized solutions to meet the needs of customers, if any, from all over the world.
Rapid Doors was founded by Dionisio López in 1997 after gaining experience in the Casa de las Persianas. Currently it is his daughter Blanca López who runs this business with a vocation to cover more markets, which employs about 60 people.
«The company is expanding and growing, in fact, hiring continues and new markets are opening in Europe, especially Norway, Switzerland…, and we have demand. It is where we want to go when everything settles a little and the situation we are experiencing now passes, ”explains this graduate in Business Administration and Management, who also graduated in Portuguese due to the demand of the neighboring country.
Rapid Doors manufactures around 100,000 doors a year, is present in 23 countries and employs around 60 people
One of the landmark works of this Cáceres factory in Spain is the Puerta de Hierro Hospital in Madrid, in which more than 5,000 doors were installed. “In principle it was going to be a very large building treated as a single project, but it was going to take a long time to build and they decided on five projects, which turned into a tremendous amount of work to supply each one,” he recalls Dionisio, today retired due to retirement from the company’s front line.
Hospital in Chile
The latest custom-made order they have in hand is a batch of some 4,000 doors that will dress the New Hospital of El Salvador in Santiago de Chile, where other projects have been carried out. In South America they have also supplied hospital centers in Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia.
The doors of the San Pedro de Alcántara complex in Cáceres are also signed by Rapid Doors. “By the way, I was there the other day, the reform is 25 years old and the doors are pristine,” Dionisio warns.
What differentiates these doors from domestic doors, in addition to the elements, materials and qualities that make them more resistant, are the vinyl-coated metal frames that were exhibited for the first time at a Batimat in Paris (International Construction Fair), where they closed your first deal. «The last client who came to visit us was Portuguese and it was the first order for doors that we had. He is still our client today in the Lisbon area », points out the businessman, who has a degree in Economic Sciences.
An employee working at Rapid Doors, the Cáceres factory based in Las Capellanías. /
Apart from the doors, the company has developed another innovative product, a system of sanitary cabins that will be released in what will be the first Formula 1 circuit in Miami. “A company in Madrid wanted a portable toilet cabin for luxury events that could be assembled and disassembled, and we designed it for them. This is used in the VIP areas of the Conde de Godó Trophy, the Davis Cup or in posh events and weddings », he illustrates.
Dakar
“It is a product that fits what they need and, surely, for Dakar there will be a fairly large print run,” adds the manager, who is about to celebrate 21 years in the company and has led the production of the hundred luxurious sanitary cabins that They have left Las Capellanías.
Other clients for whom they manufacture corporate doors are franchises such as Leroy Merlin, Burger King or Bricomart.
One of the keys to the success of the company, with a direct presence in 23 countries, lies in its human team, with experts in management and business administration, architects, engineers, professionals with languages and highly qualified technical profiles. “Although for our company it is not more important that they have training, the important thing is that they know our philosophy, which is that they ask us for things and ideas that we develop,” Dionisio clarifies.
Rapid Doors (fast doors) manufactures about 100,000 custom units per year. As an essential supplier to the health sector, it did not stop its production during the pandemic and supplied material for emergency facilities such as the Isabel Zendal Hospital in Madrid.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.