Engel de México SA de CV expects a new Mexican technical center that it opened in early October to increase its annual growth rate in Mexico and Central America to more than 10 percent in the coming years.
“It will definitely give us a boost because it signals our strong commitment to the regional plastics industry,” said General Manager Alberto Meade.
Engel de México is a unit of Schwertberg, Austria-based Engel Holding GmbH, a maker of injection presses. Meade said the firm's annual growth in the region in recent years has been 5-7 percent.
Engel has a 27 percent share of its home market of Europe, a share CEO Peter Neumann believes will probably top out at 30 percent. The Americas, on the other hand, offers fertile ground for growth, he said last year.
Neumann attended the tech center's official opening, along with Alfred Langle, Austria's ambassador to Mexico; Tonatiuh Salinas, Querétaro's minister for sustainable development; and 200 customers.
Engel has about 1,400 presses installed in Mexico, with clamping forces of 30-2,500 tons, according to Meade, and 60-65 percent of them are within easy reach of Querétaro.
Covering 21,500 square feet and incorporating a parts warehouse, service area, laboratory, classrooms for training and a processing optimization area, the tech center represents an investment of several million dollars.
“We are keeping $1.5 million worth of spare parts in stock in Querétaro,” said Meade. That fact alone will enable the company to build trust among its current and future customers, he added.
He expects most of Engel's growth in Mexico and Central America in the next few years to come from automotive and packaging.