The founder of Trepat Industries was Mr. José Trepat Galceran.
Mr. Trepat was born in Aladrell, Agramunt (Lleida), on February, the 4th of 1881. His first jobs were farmer and grape harvester.
Together with his brothers Baldomero and Estanislao, he settled down in Tàrrega. In 1907 they founded a shop devoted to iron and hardware items called J.E. Trepat in which José Trepat was commercial whithin Lleida Huesca and Andorra. Being commercial during many years allowed him to create big commercial bounds that would bloom shortly after.
In 1913, José Trepat gave up the shop he founded with his brothers and had on his own a workshop in which he made supports. He also imported harvest machines from the french firm Olivier de Orleans.
In 1915 he expanded the workshop by adding a little forge to produce spades, plough grates, ranges, tackles etc… That year he imported from America billhooking and gathering machines.
In 1916, Mr. Trepat was the forerunner for several changes which were applied in a new gathering machine; he came up with a machine which only needed a single horse to be dragged.
In 1925, the German firm Krupp got that machine and added some changes to it. Thus, Krupp started producing a series of a new gathering machines which fell in direct competence with “Trepat’s” model.
In 1925, Trepat released a new billhooking machine which allowed provender harvesting, therefore, he was the first Spanish producer of this kind of machines.
In 1931 Trepat introduced the wheeled hayfork and in 1935 the first lacing machine started to be built up by Trepat’s.
In 1936, due to the civil war, Mr. Trepat was forced to leave his house and the factory.
After the war, in 1940, Mr. Trepat started running again the firm he left four years before.
One year after, the automatic hayforks started appearing. In 1945 Trepat introduced several machines which had an industrial application rather than a farming one.
With the new billhooking bar, Trepat Industries went definitely from the making of animal-focussed machines to the making of tractor-directed machines.
Gradually, there would appear new manuring machines, hayforks and harvesting machines up until nowadays.
In 1931, the Spanish government assigned the title of “Natonal Producer”. In 1963, Mr. José Trepat Galceran was allotted, by the Spanish government, several orders to his industrial career and innovation in the farming sector. On April the 21st of 1974, José Trepat Galceran died.
On January, the 30th of 1975 Trepat Industries became an Anonymous Society getting the final name as “José Trepat Galceran Industries S.A.”.
A special mention deserves Fermín Cucurull Gassó, who was Mr. Trepat’s and the firm’s thickest and most intimate cooperator.