The Offshore Group is an organization of firsts: 

      It is the first shelter service provider to have been ISO certified, to have won Mexico’s prestigious Premio Nacional de Exportación, to have had all of its industrial parks certified for the quality of their infrastructure by Mexico’s      Ministerio de Economía, to operate Mexican social security day care centers, to be recognized as an Empresa Certificada by Mexican Customs, and the first to have more than 50 companies operating under a shelter program simultaneously.

      Today 53 Offshore Group company clients employ more than 14,000 direct labor workers at its manufacturing locations in Saltillo, Coahuila; and Guaymas and Empalme, Sonora.  The company is the largest private sector employer in the latter state.

      In commemoration of the passage of this milestone, Twin Plant News recently sat down with company president, Luis Felipe Seldner, to discuss the past, present and future of the company.

      TPN: You originally were in the transportation business.  What motivated you to leave that activity and become involved with the maquiladoras?

      LFS: I was the president and general manager of a company called Petrotransportadores. We made the mistake of accumulating dollar denominated debt, when we were invoicing our customers in pesos.  A maxi-devaluation during the ‘70s broke the firm’s back.

      TPN:  What provoked your interest in the maquiladora industry as an alternative?

      LFS: First, it was well noted that all transactions were done in dollars.  This meant that any investment that was made in this sector would be insulated from the adverse effects of volatile currency fluctuations which occurred with some regularity during those years.  Second, several other investors and I had an opportunity to acquire some land in the city of Empalme, on the Sea of Cortez.  Today our largest industrial park, Bellavista, is located there.

            TPN:  You later built a second park next door in Guaymas called Roca Fuerte.  Why did you choose this area to make these investments in?...

...Continued in the pages of Twin Plant News, Subscribe Today!