The balance of the year offered by Fran González at the traditional Christmas breakfast confirms the return to profits after 13 years of losses and the total reduction of debt by 53%
In 2024, the Consortium reached 84.4% in the compliance rate of the transparency and good governance plan, which almost doubles the public sector average at the national level.
The arrival of new companies, with a total of 108 commercial operations in 2025, has made it possible for the old Altadis lands to now have an occupancy of 71%
The activity in international missions and the work of the AZFA board of directors has led to Cádiz hosting the XXIX Ibero-American Free Trade Zone Conference in 2026
The new industry 4.0 model and the Blue Economy ecosystem have been reinforced with the inauguration of the new Incubazul Base Zone container building and with the incorporation of important firms from the technological and innovative sector
The 180º turn in the financial situation has made it possible to improve infrastructure and services for the business sector and face the future with the 2026-2030 Strategic Plan that has been approved by the Plenary Session of the Consortium.
The Cádiz Free Zone has exceeded 15 million euros in turnover for the first time at the end of the 2025 financial year, having carried out a total of 108 commercial operations, of which 74 have been new lease contracts and 34 sales. This was stated by the State delegate, Fran González, at the traditional Christmas breakfast with the media that took place this morning at the Institution's Headquarters.
During his assessment to the media, the delegate of the Free Zone offered details of the dynamism and growing commercial activity and added that the number of commercial operations confirmed in 2025 "represents a record and sales alone have allowed us to earn close to 2 million euros." In fact, turnover since the beginning of the current management has increased by more than 4 million euros.
In parallel to the commercial dynamism and the turnaround in the financial situation, Fran González has highlighted a fact that he has considered important in the management of the Consortium, which stands at 84.4% in the compliance rate of the transparency and good governance plan, which almost doubles the average for the public sector at the national level. Free Zone was included in the Evaluation Plan of the Transparency and Good Governance Council (CTBG) in 2023 and in the 2024 evaluation it surpassed the score achieved in 2023 by 5.21 points.
The commercial dynamism of recent years and especially of 2025 confirms that the new industry 4.0 model that the Consortium is implementing with its Blue Economy and innovation ecosystem is working. The Cadiz tax district is attracting important firms in the sector and there are already 85 companies linked to the circular economy, 32 of them of an innovative and technological nature.
Fran González recalled incorporations of important firms -Rospa, Elecam and more recently Dragados OffShore and Dreexo- "that have made it possible for the land of the former Altadis in the Cadiz tax area to currently register an occupancy of 71%, when in 2020 they were not only vacant but in a significant state of neglect. To these we must add others that have added to the innovative ecosystem and that have been installed in the traditional tax area such as Pro Electronica Sur, TP Hispania or Renacens, to name some of them.”
Turnaround in the financial situation
The head of the Cádiz Institution has highlighted that “the 180º turn that the financial situation of the Cádiz Free Zone has taken, which in 2024 achieved profits for the first time after 13 years of losses and which has managed to reduce its total debt since 2020 by 53%.
And the consolidated accounts for 2024 presented to the Plenary Session of the Consortium last October show positive results of 2.4 million euros for the group of companies, and 1.9 million positive for the Free Trade Zone, compared to losses of 8.8 million euros when the current team took office.
González explained that "all current economic data reflect high liquidity with a solid capacity to meet short-term payment obligations, with a positive working capital of 26 million euros in 2024, which contrasts greatly with the negative working capital of 3.3 million in 2020."
Furthermore, net worth has doubled in 5 years, going from 72 million to 144 million euros in 2024, with a Corporate Tax that has tripled the usual annual average in the last two years, exceeding 7.1 million euros.
All of this has made it possible to improve infrastructure and services for the business sector with a comprehensive Modernization Plan, which has a total investment of 13.1 million euros and whose work began in 2021 in a phased manner and in different parts of the province of Cádiz.
Fran González concluded the presentation by citing "other topics of great relevance for the Institution that have been redirected since 2020", such as the reduction of litigation and the recovery of more than 6 million euros of a default of more than 8 million euros, as well as the implementation of digitization in files and the approval of a Manual of Good Practices in the deployment and use of Artificial Intelligence.
The ecosystem of the Free Trade Zone and the commitment to the Blue Economy has been reinforced this year with the inauguration in October by the first vice president of the Government, María Jesús Montero, of the new building of recycled maritime containers of Zona Base Incubazul in the outer polygon of the Free Zone, where the incubator will have its permanent headquarters. Added to this is the new project launched, ZF Blue Core, a service program for Blue Economy startups, which includes the construction of two new buildings whose work has already been put out to tender.
Another important milestone of 2025 has been the achievement achieved by the international missions of the Cádiz Consortium, especially those carried out in Latin America, and the presence of the delegate Fran González on the board of directors of the Association of Free Zones of Ibero-America (AZFA), facts that have led to Cádiz hosting the XXIX Conference of Free Zones of Ibero-America in 2026 and which will be an event for the capital of Cádiz.