Astra Unceta y CÃÂa was a Spanish weapons manufacturer founded on 17 July 1908, under the name Esperanza y Unceta by Juan Esperanza and Pedro Unceta, renamed to Unceta y CompañÃÂa in 1925, and finally changing to Astra-Unceta y CompañÃÂa S.A. in 1953.
Initially based in Eibar, the centre of the Basque arms industry, the company moved in 1913 to Guernica. One of the very few private arms companies allowed to operate after Spanish Civil War, it continued producing handguns for the Spanish government and export markets until the company filed for bankruptcy in 1997.
In 1908, (Juan Pedro Unceta) and formed a partnership to create a firm specialized in handguns. Esperanza was born in Aragon and settled in Eibar, joining the local gunmaking community while Unceta was born into a family of gunmakers in Eibar, earning his apprenticeship working at an uncle workshop. On 17 July 1908, both partners agreed that their company, named Esperanza y Unceta would be dedicated "to mechanical fabrication of different articles or manufacturers of iron and steel", with Esperanza responsible for running the workshop and Unceta in charge of overall management.
According to E. C. Ezell, the first handguns produced by Esperanza y Unceta, excluding subcontracts from other arms makers were the Victoria (renamed as the Astra 1911 in 1914) series of .25 ACP and .32 ACP pistols based on the FN Model 1903. The company workforce which initially consisted of 16 workers and 8 apprentices quickly expanded to 120 workers by 1913. After manufacturing nearly 50,000 Victorias, production moved from Eibar to Guernica. A few months after the transfer in 1913, the workers went on strike which ended with most of them returning to work, while the training of a local workforce normalized the company situation by 1914.
The move to Guernica also affected the Esperanza y Unceta management: while Pedro Unceta formally remained as a partner, he preferred to continue running his hardware business in Eibar, leaving his son Don Rufino in charge of management. On 25 November 1914, the company adopted the Astra trade name and began assigning numerical designations for their handguns.
Other guns produced by the company include the Campo-Giro pistol which was adopted by the Spanish government as their service pistol in 1912, and the Ruby pistol for the French and Italian armies during World War I.
In 1919, Pedro Unceta gave his share of the partnership to his son Rufino and in 1925, Esperanza left the partnership to establish his own military hardware company. Don Rufino's cousin Canuto then took over the direction of the Esperanza-Unceta factory, resulting in the company being renamed to Unceta y Compañia.
In 1920, Esperanza-Unceta released the Astra 200, a copy of the FN M1906 that was produced until 1967. According to Ian V. Hogg, the trade name Astra became prominent in 1921, with the adoption of the Astra 400 (based on the Campo-Giro) as the Spanish Army service pistol. During the 1920s and 1930s, Astra also began marketing and exporting pistols, revolvers, and hunting shotguns built by third-party companies in Eibar and Ermua.
Other notable firearms produced during the interbellum were the Astra Model 900 series introduced in 1928 inspired by the Mauser C96. After the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was banned from exporting military firearms and Unceta y Cia took advantage to market their new pistol to various Chinese warlords: about 30,000 units were shipped to China until 1937, when the Spanish Civil War made further exports impossible. The remaining pistols were subsequently issued to Nationalist-aligned Civil Guard units.
Under the Second Spanish Republic, the arms industry was more closely supervised and regulated, specially since the Basques had always wanted independence from the government in Madrid regardless of political leanings. The new government quickly moved to confiscate all guns chambered to the standard 9ÃÂ23mm Largo cartridge from all factories and workshops in the provinces of Vizcaya and Guipúzcoa on the behalf of the Ministry of War. A total of 600 Astra 901s and 750 Astra 902s were seized by the government in 1931, while subsequent arms exports had to be approved on a case-by-case basis.
According to Ezell, Unceta sold 11,658 pistols for the Republican government between July 1936 and April 1937, despite the company owner Don Rufino Unceta and the factory manager José Rodriguez political leaning towards Francisco Franco. With Nationalist forces marching towards Guernica, the government ordered Unceta to move all the factory machinery behind the Bilbao ring of fortifications to produce more pistols for the Republican forces. According to Quesada, Don Rufino left the company after the Popular Front came into power, though the factory workers did manage to produce 14,800 Astra 400 pistols for the Republicans. Claiming they were short of specialists to dismantle the machinery, Don Rufino and Rodriguez stalled for time. On 23 April, they were told that Russian technicians were on their way to dismantle the factory, but these plans were disrupted by the Bombing of Guernica three days later. The Condor Legion pilots missed the only military target on the city since they never heard of Unceta y Cia or Astra. On 3 May 1937, after the Nationalist forces secured the city, work resumed at the factory subsequently producing guns for Franco. According to Quesada, Don Rufino returned to the company, which produced 20,300 Astra 400s for the Nationalists in 1937âÂÂ1939. Unceta y Cia also supplied several Astra 300s for the Condor Legion.
Under the Franco regime, the Spanish handgun industry was more tightly regulated and export sales dropped, resulting in the closure of several of private firms in the Basque region, with only Astra, Star Bonifacio Echeverria, and Llama Firearms surviving after 1939.
Due Franco's political affinities with the Axis powers, Germany virtually became Unceta y Cias only major customer until the end of World War II. In 1942 the company became a joint-stock company, remaining in the hands of Don Rufino and Canuto Unceta.
During the conflict, substantial numbers of Astra 400 pistols and variants were delivered to the Wehrmacht, including 6,000 Astra 400s, 85,390 Astra 300s, and 10,450 Astra 600 pistols before the Free French forces took control of the French-Spanish border in 1944. According to Walter, the Germans placed an order of 40,000 Model 600 pistols, but 28,000 ended up seized by the French. Deliveries resumed in 1946âÂÂ1947 to arm the newly raised West German police, while an additional 49,000 guns were produced until 1946 for the civilian market.
From 1940 to 1943, Unceta delivered 2,004 Astra 903s and 1,050 Astra 900s at the German Army headquarters in Hendaye, occupied France. After the Spanish government passed a legislation in 1944 restricting the production of pistols with automatic fire capability or designed to take a detachable stock to state-run arsenals only, Astra was forced to halt production of the Astra 900 series, with the exception of small batches produced between 1950 and 1955.
Spain's political isolation after the end of World War II restricted the sales to government bodies, forcing Unceta y Cia to diversify its activities, with the production of machine tools and parts for the textile industry. During the 1950s, the company (renamed to Astra-Unceta y CompañÃÂa SA in 1953) received private capital injections (the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria being one of the largest shareholders) and arms sales recovered. By this time, the company was headed by Don Rufino Unceta and his sons, José Luis and Augusto.
In 1946, Unceta introduced the compact Astra 2000, which was exported into the United States prior to 1970 as the "Colt Junior" and later as the "Cub". During the 1980s the Model 2000 was discontinued in favor of the enlarged Astra 7000, which was marketed until Astra-Unceta ceased trading in 1997.
In 1947, assembly of the Astra 300 was stopped and in 1948, Unceta released a slight modified version as the Astra 3000, which was produced until 1956, when the modernized Astra 4000 was introduced; also known as the "Falcon", the Model 4000 was exported to the US in large numbers.
In the 1950s, the company began manufacturing Smith & Wesson-pattern revolvers under the brand Astra Cadix. These models had solid frames with swing-out cylinders. Production of the Cadix line continued until the Gun Control Act of 1968 forbade their importation to the US under the grounds of having inferior safety features. In response, Astra-Unceta y Cia introduced the Astra Model 357 in 1972, which incorporated an improved mechanism to prevent accidental firings. Subsequently, revolver exports to the US resumed until 1997.
While Astra-Unceta produced a substantial number of guns over the years, it was not on the same league with foreign companies such as Colt, FN Herstal, or Walther, even during the 1914âÂÂ1936 period, which E. C. Ezell called the "[Spanish] golden years of handgun manufacture". During the 60s, arms sales declined, with exports remaining competitive only with large government subsidies. The workforce was gradually reduced from 438 employees in 1970 to 408 in 1975; 355 in 1982 and 230 in 1990.
In 1977, Augusto Unceta-Barrenechea, manager and owner of Astra, as well a serving member of the Basque government was killed by the ETA separatist group.
In 1997, Astra and one of its competitors, Star went bankrupt and both companies former employees formed a new company under the trade name ASTAR to produce pistols and scopes. This new company was short-lived, ceasing operations a few years later. According to Mendizabal, the merge and an attempt to refloat the company under the trade name Astra Sport S.A. () were unsuccessful with the factory shutting down in 1998, while the final liquidation was concluded in 1999.
Most buildings were demolished in 2006, excepted for the former headquarters that were saved thanks to community mobilization.
In 2008, 100 years after the foundation of Esperanza y Unceta (Astra Unceta y CÃÂa), a Swiss firearms manufacturing company, founded by the Italian entrepreneur Massimo Garbarino and located in the city of Sion, adopted the name Astra S.A. and took over the rights on the Astra trademark. Astra S.A. has established a manufacturing line for high level 1911-type pistols (the U.S. model and the Daytona model), as well as a manufacturing line for AR-15 rifles (the StG-16, StG-15 and StG-4 models), to be distributed on those civilian markets which at the time were lacking similar American products, whose export requires the issue of an End user certificate. At present, the Astra S.A. products are distributed on the European civilian market and Central and South American, Asian and African military market.