Star Bonifacio Echeverria, S.A. — The company
Information on Star as a company has traditionally been hard to get. Why? They are a european company, they do not deal in English as a corporate entity, their distributors are not the best at brand building, maybe just luck of the draw. Once I did get a packet of information direct from the company, but since then an even bigger hurdle has been erected. They no longer exist. Read on for more details. If you are in the Eibar region, be sure to visit the arms museum.
The Spanish version of Wikipedia has what appears to be a pretty good article on Star as a corporate entity. Oddly enough, I don't read a lick of Spanish, so I haven't put the info up here yet. If you can translate Spanish to English, give it a shot, and I'll happily turn the info into a better company profile right here.
Bonifacio Echeverria and the ancestry of Star
The Eibar region has been a center of weapons development and manufacture for centuries. "Spanish steel" traditionally is a great selling point, for its quality, durability and edge. When firearms came into being, Eibar retained its edge as a weapons center. The oldest known ancestor of the Star lineage is Jose Cruz Echeverria, who made muzzle-loading firearms before the 1900s.
His two sons, Julian and Bonifacio Echeverria entered the firearms business about 1905. They produced the model 1908 pistol, substantially a Mannlicher Model 1900 in 6.35 mm. Around 1910, Julian left the business (to what end, I do not know) and Bonifacio expanded and began improving their current offering. By 1914 the model 1914 was released, with much the same mechnaism, but continued improvements to the ergonomics.
As is often the case with weapons makers, a government contract really made the company, in this case a French contract for a version of the 1914 pistol. The Model 1 Militar is basically a 7.65 mm caliber version of the Model 1914 designed for the French military, who referred to them as the Pistolet automatique, type Star.
The beginnings of Star
In 1919, Bonifacio formally registered the Star trade name, and all subsequent weapons were marked as such. This site covers all operations of the Bonifacio Echeverria company, even before it made "Star" firearms. Note that although some references say that the Basque and Spanish equivalents of Star are also registered (Izarra and Estrella), they are not commonly used. Izarra was the trade name Bonifacio Echeverria used for their Baby Browning clones, but the name was not used further. I am not aware of any pistols produced under the "Estrella" mark.
Originally, Bonifaco had planned on producing a still more improved version of the model 1914, initially to meet a French follow-on contract for 50,000 pistols. However, the end of their war caused the cancelation of the contract, and Echeverria decided that clones of the Colt 1911 were more commercially viable.
It seems that Star officially pursued contract production of the Colt 1911 from Fabrique Nationale (the European owner of the design) but could not come to agreement on it, and decided that changes would be needed anyway to give it an "Eibar" feel.
From the Civil War to the 1970s
During the Second Republic, the Bonifacio Echeverria factory continues to produce weapons, with most destined for export. Despite poor economic conditions worlwide, and especially in Spain, steady re-armament and upgrading of arms in the inter-war period led to regular sales.
During the war, Eibar was a loyalist, or Republican, region and production was dedicated to government forces until the fall of much of the Basque region in 1937. From then onward, Star firearms were supplied to Nationalist rebel forces. The -35 series submachine guns were particularly important to the war effort. It appears no effort was made on behalf of either administration to press the Star factory into producing other arms, or sub-contracting any parts or other war materiel.
The end
The 1990s were bad for defense companies all over the world. For the most part, companies in smaller markets either found their niche and flourished (Diemaco), or slowly perished. In Spain Star, Astra and CETME met their end.
While Star introducted modern technology and manufacturing methods, including aluminum frames, plastics, and a selective double-action, double-column series of pistols, management crises and poor understanding of the new EU open markets led to reduced sales and profitability.
The final years at Star saw a relative flurry of new models, and court challenges over restructuring plans and massive layoffs.
Much of the descent was too slow to have perhaps noticed at the time. In 1975 the factory employed 411 workers, but this had slowly decended to to 141 in 1993. A plan was forumlated which would have cut half of those workers immediately, but this fell through.
Star filed for bankruptcy protection in late 1993 after taking out loans to invest in new CNC machinery. They were indirectly affected by the Asian economic crisis; Spanish banks tried to cover Asian investment losses by turning the screws on those nearby companies owing them money, like Star. Star and Astra began cooperative investment and discussions of mergers in the mid 90s, but Astra was not in much better shape, so this eventually dragged both companies down.
I heard numerous rumours around this time that a large foreign cooperative, like Beretta, would snap them up, as they did with Sako. This was not to be however (and really doesn't make sense from a product line point of view).
Employees of both companies, through their unions I believe, tried to set up a cooperative to take control of the companies. They planned to upgrade operations again, but also ran into trouble overextending themselves financially, and eventually these organizations also sought protection under bankruptcy laws.
On May 27, 1997 both Star and Astra closed their doors, and were placed in the Spanish equivalent of Chapter Seven bankruptcy, under the control of a Basque regional judge. Eventually, an agreement was reached that settled sufficient outstanding debt, and allowed some of the machinery and the intellectual property to be resurrected in two new companies. Much machinery was also sold at auction to pay debtors. Apparently all unassembled or unsold barrels and frames were destroyed by government order when the company closed. Unregistered parts were retained and seem to still be available thru Ipar (see below).
Star and Astra combined into one company under the ASTAR name, with a new factory, which manufactures a range of new firearms. For their part of the story, read on.
Another facet of the company was allowed to continue under the name Ipar Guns. They make a small number of custom weapons, conduct DEWATS on others, and provide a range of parts and gunsmithing services on Star and Astra pistols. The parts page has current contact information and other details on their operations.
Llama is one of the few Spanish gunmakers to exist "intact," though actually under new management, as Fabinor (supposedly at www.fabrinor-llama.com but that's not working right now). They do make some firearms, but are primary focused on contract forging, casting and machine work.
Eibar Arms Museum
If you want to check out weapons and history of the Eibar region manufacturers, including Star, in person you can. As long as you can drive over to Eibar, Spain. The Eibar Museum of the Arms Industry is located on the fifth floor of a cultural building in the town center.
Museum of the Arms Industry
Bista Eder, 10 - 5.20600 Eibar (Gipuzkoa)
Tel. 943 708446
Fax. 943 708436
http://www.armia-eibar.net/contact
Note that there is no parking at the museum, so look around for (relatively) nearby public lots if you are driving there.
Prices and hours (which do vary by season) are available at the museum information page