Global Expansions: An industrial coverings firm finds a way into Mexico

Mark D'Andreta was at dinner when he saw his path into the Mexican market. For years he'd been trying to break in, but every attempt had failed despite all of his automotive customers making their way south of the border. Mr. D'Andreta's Sterling Heights Mich.-based company, TD Industrial Coverings Inc., makes fabric protective coverings so that paint shop robots don't get covered in the overspray. As more of the automotive companies opened in Mexico starting in the 1990s after passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mr. D'Andreta assumed it would be a lucrative market. "I thought I better do something down there. There's a need and if I don't do it, someone else is going to," said Mr. D'Andreta, president of TD Industrial Coverings. He'd tag along on trips with automaker clients, but the business opportunities fizzled out as border issues and communication problems reared their heads. The automakers also had purchasing chains for Mexico that differed from the ones for the plants back home. "Even though I was still dealing with GM or Ford or Magna, once I was down there, I'd still have all these hurdles," Mr. D'Andreta said. "It was almost naive. You don't know that stuff until you start trying to do business down there." Sometimes plant managers in Mexico would call him, desperate for covers and asking him to send some down. But robotic coverings aren't socks. Modifications are almost always needed to suit the tight, highly engineered configurations. Mr. D'Andreta soon would be on a plane to Mexico, spending a lot of time on a distant account that may or may not go somewhere. Finally, an industry contact offered to set up a meeting with a company that distributes American industrial products to factories in Mexico. It sounded like the makings of a concrete plan to Mr. D'Andreta, so he agreed to meet for dinner while the man was in Detroit on business. "I needed someone who could help me communicate and follow up on customers, a consistent feedback loop on the customer's need and whether I'm meeting the need," Mr. D'Andreta said. He was apprehensive. But his new connection brought clarity to the situation, explaining how shipping and payments get handled in Mexico and assuaging Mr. D'Andreta's concerns about communications. More than a decade later, TDIC now does business in eight plants and is looking to set up a permanent sales and service office in Mexico. The company also has picked up bits of work in Spain, England, Turkey and Brazil. That doesn't mean the experience has been without the occasional challenge. For example, Mr. D'Andreta had to incorporate social niceties, such as prefacing business emails with inquiries about family life and the weather. "I'd rather just send four bullet points on what I need. You just can't do it that way," he said. "Some are more tolerant of it now — 'OK, you're American. You're like this.' " This story first appeared in Crain's Detroit Business.