Morelia, Mexico — Mexico's national plastics industry association has paid homage to one of its most celebrated members, Sergio Beutelspacher Sandoval.
In a Spanish language eulogy read at Anipac's 50th annual convention in late September, the association's executive commission recalled a maxim often repeated by Beutelspacher, Mexico's foremost inventor of plastics machinery.
“We must work hard, not so much for money but to strive always to be the best.”
“And in this industry, you are the best,” the commission said to warm applause.
“As a Mexican industrialist, you have always believed in the industry and in your country. You have demonstrated that with courtesy and discipline anything is achievable.
“You have always helped the plastics community to the best of your ability. You are the only Mexican who has dared to go to the United States and to offer machinery for sale using technology that is 100 percent Mexican because you are the only one who makes it.”
The testimonial added: “You have created a prosperous company, a united and good family and your career has been exemplary.
“You have always been a fighter, fighting fairly in the face of so many stumbling blocks that we, as a developing country, are obliged to accept.
“But in particular, Ing. Beutelspacher, we recognize your trajectory because of what you have said on so many occasions, which is that we ‘must work hard, not so much for money but to strive always to be the best' — and you in this industry are the best.”
Anipac stands for Asociación de Industrias del Plástico AC. Ing. is short for ingeniero (Spanish for engineer). The octogenarian Beutelspacher, who celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary with his wife Luz María, in September, launched his company, Beutelspacher SA de CV, in southern Mexico City 39 years ago.
In that time he has designed more than 1,000 plastic extrusion and blow molding machines, a third of which have been exported to the United States, Canada and China, with the remainder sold in Mexico.
His four children are partners in the business, which employs 100. Asked in a Plastics News interview in 2008 how the company had outlived every one of its 25 competitors, Beutelspacher replied: “We have total flexibility in the operations with our clients. We sell technology and the money is secondary.”