SAGA: A company of INI for the manufacture of agricultural machinery, 1939-1972

Upon the ending of the Spanish Civil War, the Andalusian landowners were aware of the high expectations that the new regime had laid on agriculture and of the need of increasing the agricultural machinery pool. In this context, an important group of them decided to set up an agricultural machinery company, Sociedad Anonima de Construcciones Agricolas (SACA), founded in Seville on December 29, 1939. Serious flaws in the project and unanticipated difficulties led to its promoters to seek help from the Instituto National de Industria (INI), which agreed to take a majority stake in the company, with the ultimate intention of turning it into one of the largest companies in the group and Spain. As with other similar projects fostered by the INI in Andalusia, in less than 20 years, after consuming considerable resources, it ended up in a complete failure.