Wittmann Battenfeld Expands Mexican Operations

WittmannBattenfeld’s Mexican subsidiary is undergoing its second expansion in two years. At Plastimagen (Nov. 18-21, Mexico City), company officials said the latest addition, which was nearly complete and would push total space to more than 2000m², included 400m² of new warehouse space and another 250m² of office space. In the third quarter of 2012, the company’s then 700m² facility in Querétaro was expanded to 1,100m².

 

David Rodrigo Muñoz Barrera, president of Wittmann Battenfeld Maquilas Inc., the El Paso, Texas subsidiary opened in July 2013 to directly serve customers in the maquiladora region, said that in addition to nearly tripling its space in Querétaro in recent years, the company has seen the same kind of growth in revenue.

 

Matt McCabe, international key account manager for WittmannBattenfeld, said the investments in El Paso and Querétaro reflect his company’s belief that in recent years more decisions by multinational companies setting up operations in Mexico are being made locally.

 

“Mexico is really a self sufficient market locally now,” McCabe said, describing the transition over the last 6 to 7 years. Barrera noted that the WittmannBattenfeld’s growing customer base in Mexico skews heavily towards multinational customers, which account for about 70% of its sales, compared to 30% for Mexican processors.

 

The growing importance of the Mexican market for WittmannBattenfeld was reflected in its outsized Plastimagen booth. Covering 450m² at the Centro Banamex, the massive stand was easily the largest at the exhibition. The company used the space to show a full range of injection molding machines, ranging down to a 5-ton MicroPower molding a surgical clip all the way up to a 650-ton MacroPower, molding an avocado crate.

 

In the latter case, McCabe noted that both the machine and mold were already sold to a customer with delivery following the show. The booth’s full machine display included vertical molding, inmold labeling, and micromolding, with fully electric, hybrid, and hydraulic machines. In addition, a full range of auxiliaries was shown, in addition to the local launch of the Pro Series of robots.