Global supply chain has undergone a considerable reconfiguration in recent years. Port congestion’s, weather phenomena, geopolitical conflicts, sanitary issues, supply disruptions, and other factors have caused this movement. During this market balancing process, some countries have gained the spotlight as a solution to overloaded product flows, among them, Mexico.
Mexico has several advantages, such as its geographical location next to the United States, associated with more favorable taxes and tariffs. Manzanillo, facing the Pacific, is the country’s most important port, where most products arrive, mainly from Asia, as well as leave for countries such as Guatemala, Colombia, China, Japan, and India. The Port of Veracruz, on the Gulf of Mexico, is relevant for goods destined for Europe and Latin America. In addition, the country has more than a dozen free trade agreements signed with over 50 countries, which facilitates access to various markets.
Mexico’s infrastructure allows reducing costs and delivery times, planning business continuity and, of course, obtaining better results through strategic intelligence. Procurement Garage (PG), a consulting firm specialized in Transformation, Innovation, and Strategic Planning in the areas of Procurement and Supply Chain, with headquarters in São Paulo, Brazil, and now with a recently opened Mexican branch, knows quite well the relevance of Mexico in the global supply chain.
Strategic Location
“Mexico is a very important market not only in itself, given its size and numerous important companies, many of them global, but also in the strategic potential for expansion of the international operations of current clients of our boutique consulting firm. The international expansion of Procurement Garage in past years was a result of their demand, as we understand that our support at such locations was necessary for business growth and value generation for our clients. Besides the newly opened Mexican office, we have a branch in Miami, USA and support offices in the Netherlands and China”, says Leonardo Alexander, CEO and partner of Procurement Garage, who brings over 30 years of experience as Supply Chain Head at Ambev, P&G, B. Braun, Latam Head of Supply Chain Planning & Performance at BP (British Petroleum).
$4 billion in Cost Savings
Founded in New York in 2013 by Paulo Esteves, former Global VP of Procurement at AB-InBev, Procurement Garage‘s main focus is to reduce costs, TCO, increase the level of maturity in procurement, best practices, digital transformation and risk management in organizations. After almost a decade, the company has already conducted more than 250 projects in Brazil, Mexico, and USA, which delivered approximately US$ 4 billion in savings for the clients.
Opening the Mexican branch was a strategic decision made by Paulo and Leonardo, the founding partners, leveraged by the vast experience of Ricardo Bordinhao in implementing startups of Brazilian companies in Mexico.
As CEO of the Mexican subsidiary, Ricardo contributed with the knowledge to facilitate the understanding of the legal, tax, labor and commercial aspects that must be considered when opening a foreign subsidiary in the country. He has lived and worked in Mexico for 25 years, in General Management and C-level positions in service, industrial production and distribution & sales companies; and providing consulting services for new business developments. Ricardo led the successful startup and go-to-market processes of 3 Brazilian companies in Mexico, has previous international experience in the UK and USA in the areas of global supply chain, and operations & product marketing for Latin America. He holds as a master’s degree from Rice University, Houston, TX.
Consulting, Technology, Education
Procurement Garage operates in Mexico with three business units: Consulting, Technology, and Education, with a team of ten consultants in its first year, and foreseeing to triple this number next year. “We will also count on the support of the entire structure of the company in Brazil, which has more than 80 consultants. The pandemic showed us that global demands can be met from the virtual world with great agility and efficiency. In the past two years, we have remotely delivered more than seventy projects”, says Alexander.
PG Mexico’s operation will also rely on a close partnership with Coupa, a global company specialized in technologies to maximize spend management. It is worth mentioning that the technical part of the consulting and technology services is practically universal, but to provide it effectively, it will be adapted to the local business culture and day-to-day operation.
As for the education services for professionals in the segment, an additional care is required. “The essence of the concepts is also universal, but the way to transmit them will be tropicalized to the local Spanish terms used by procurement and supply chain professionals”, concludes the CEO of PG Mexico.
According to Alexander, the company’s growth expectation with the added Mexico operation is to double PG’s revenues within 5 years and expand the brand’s portfolio, which currently includes more than 200 clients, including AB-Inbev, Braskem, BRF, Coca-Cola, Ipiranga, Hypera, Dasa, Suzano, Cinemark, Alpargatas, and Grupo NC, among others.