manxa started as a blacksmith shop in Olot in 1876. Over the years the company has been consolidating, becoming a reference point in the business of ironmongery, industrial supply and distribution of steel products. Since its creation, manxa has differentiated to bring value and solutions to our customers so that they are better, faster, more efficient and more profitable. Our philosophy motivates us daily to be able to give the best of ourselves and to grow this way in a sustainable way. The development has been accompanied by a process of expansion and diversification of products and services, thanks to reinvesting the benefits of the actions and efforts of people oriented and motivated to make sure that customers are convinced of working with us.

Where did Manxa’s history begin?

In 1900, Joan Agustí Surroca bought a locksmith shop in Olot, opened in 1876 and owned by Rafael Casanova, popularly known manxa. His son Bartomeu Agustí Trilla took over the locksmith and expanded it with a hardware store.

During the postwar period, he gave the business to his son, Joan Agustí Reixach who continued the transformation of the business and expanded it beyond the city of Olot. manxa's name has passed generation through generation as a symbol of effort, hard work, and sacrifice.

Bartomeu Agustí Trilla (Olot, 1880-1946) was a charming man and over the years he won the affection of his fellow citizens. It was a one-room store and he rarely left the counter. He was always informed of everything that happened to his business. He had learned the profession at a well known hardware store in Barcelona, Casellas. That learning allowed him to stand out later in the Garrotxa with works such as that of the emblematic Malagrida Tower of Olot, nineteenth-century and with the architect's design Bonaventura Bassegoda.

Over the years, Bartomeu Agustí Hardware was converted into an establishment where even articles of hunting, fishing, and sport were sold. The city of Olot had special love for the Agustí family, everyone trusted in their business. Even during the Civil War, it was not possible to alter the its activity. Two different historical bills are preserved: one dating from September 30, 1936, written in Catalan and issued to the Antifascist Committee of Olot; another on May 31, 1939, written in Spanish and addressed to the Traditional Spanish Falanje and the JONS. 

Bartomeu Agustí died in 1946. A few years before, his son, Joan Agustí Reixach (Olot, 1911-2004) had begun to take up the business. He had worked in one of the most modern hardware stores of the time: Vilaseca Bas, of Barcelona complementing it with practical training in the Industrial School. Part of the success of the management of Joan Agustí Reixach at the helm of the business was his wife Carme Alfara Messeguer (Ulldecona, 1913-1977), owner of a hardware store in Ulldecona. Between them, they created a tandem that made manxa grow exponentially. In 1950 they opened a small hardware store in Banyoles and soon they opened a steel warehouse with a small store. Since 1960, Carme Alfara opened a store dedicated to wedding lists. In 1973, in Olot, the sale to the public went to the city center, to a much wider and modern space to be closer to the people.

In 1977 and after a long illness, Carme Alfara died. That was when her son Joan Agustí Alfara (Olot, 1953) joined the family business, after studying business studies at ESADE (Barcelona). With new ideas, the first decision he made was to officially rename the group as manxa , the nickname whereupon olot citizens had identified the company for more than a century. The times had changed and the Agustí family understood that the economy was no longer on demand, but on offer and that they had to seek suppliers at the international level. The idea was to look for brands abroad and buy the most efficient supplier: internationalize purchases.

The second steel warehouse was opened in 1997 in Riudellots de la Selva, thanks to the good performance of the first warehouse in Olot that allowed a growing demand of steel products in the province of Girona.

In 2000, there was an important change in the structure of the company, a Holding structure was created, where all of manxa’s business units were under a structure where manxa 1876 is the Holding company.

The professionalization of the company, the sector and the clients made the coexistence in the same center of industrial products, steel product, hardware and household products, incompatible.

That is why manxa opened another store for Industrial products and its distribution.

Nowadays manxa is in a growing process. The immediate future is set in the Barcelona area where 70% of the Catalan added value is concentrated and faces the opening of the 3rd steel hardware of iron, in Castellbisbal, Barcelona (2015). Nowadays, the activity related to the retail represents near 10%. The business is centralized in the distribution of elements for the industry and the distribution and transformation of steel products, both structural and commercial.