The North American technology multinational HP inaugurated this Tuesday a new innovation and design center in Sant Cugat del Vallès (Vallès Occidental), a project that will create up to 80 new jobs. From the new facilities, which the company calls La Masia HP Experience Design Center, HP will develop new products and digital services in the field of printing. For this project the company has received a grant from the Government through ACCIÓ - the agency for the competitiveness of the company of the Department of Enterprise and Labor - of 200,000 euros within the framework of the aid line 'High Impact.

The Minister of Business and Work, Roger Torrent i Ramió, took part in the opening ceremony this Tuesday; the director general of HP Iberia, Inés Bermejo; the CEO of HP Barcelona, Ramon Pastor; and the mayor of Sant Cugat del Vallès, Josep M. Vallès, among other authorities.

During his speech, councilor Torrent assured that "the Masia is a project of strategic value for the country, because it generates 80 new quality jobs, and because it has a strong potential to help the business fabric to innovate and find new solutions productive". During his speech, the head of Business and Work emphasized that this project "reinforces the innovative ecosystem of our country, the attraction of talent and the attractiveness of Catalonia to host new projects".

With this new center, which is located in a renovated 14th-century farmhouse, the multinational aims to optimize HP's printing and personal systems businesses and establish an international design team. The team, which will design and develop new digital experiences, will be made up of professional profiles in fields such as UX Designers, Data Scientist, Product Management or Front end developers, among others.

In the framework of the inauguration, the general director of HP Iberia, Inés Bermejo, has affirmed that the new La Masia center "allows the creation of a unique enclave for the search for innovation and establishes the foundations to further optimize the solutions and services we carry out at HP". This new space is located within the facilities of the HP International Center in Sant Cugat, where 2,500 workers currently work and which has established itself as one of the most important headquarters of the multinational on an international scale. In this sense, Bermejo has pointed out that the Catalan headquarters "is a key place for HP in the birth, development and operation of technologies that make people's lives easier, and it will be even more so with the opening of this new center global innovation and design".

According to the company, HP has decided to locate the new innovation center in Catalonia due to the existence of international design talent and the attractiveness of Barcelona and because the Catalan headquarters is one of the company's most important in the world. The CEO of HP Barcelona, Ramon Pastor, has assured that "the rehabilitation of an iconic space like La Masia facilitates the connection between the past and the most advanced technology developed by HP and allows the center of Barcelona to continue growing and consolidating - as a point of reference, both nationally and internationally".

Based in California (United States) and founded in 1939, HP has a presence in more than 170 countries and nearly 60,000 workers on an international scale. It is one of the leading companies in the world in the fields of personal computing, printing, 3D printing, hybrid work or video games, among others. According to ACCIÓ data, there are currently almost 1,200 subsidiaries of American companies established in Catalonia.