TBY talks to Mariano Aguiló, International General Director of Grupo EULEN, on the security industry, social services lines, and expansion plans.
TBY Which Grupo EULEN business lines are experiencing the highest growth rate in the Mexican market?
MARIANO AGUILÓ The business line that has the greatest short-term growth possibility is security. Mexican companies are not developed sufficiently to offer security solutions. These solutions are principally provided by international companies, and we are one of them. In addition, from our point of view, at the strategic level non-conventional business lines also have future possibilities for development. Those are those that aim to grab the attention of elderly people and public health. It’s called the “social services” line, and it is aimed at providing health and general services to multinationals, financial entities, and corporate employees. In a context where the middle class is growing and the need for new healthcare services are expanding, Grupo EULEN thinks that it is a must to act preventively and facilitate a high quality of life for this population through services for the public administration or through private companies; this is a niche of strategic, important, and future business. The public administration in Mexico does not have the resources necessary to take care of the health needs of a population of 120 million inhabitants. For that reason, it is a strategic niche of future business for a company with services like ours.
How would you describe the main pillars of your business model?
Our business model is very generic; to help our customers turn their fixed costs into variables. Within that concept, one of the main pillars is to diminish the variable costs of the client being sold a service, that is to say, to offer solutions although they are solved by manpower.
How important is the Mexican market for Grupo EULEN’ s global operations?
Grupo EULEN’s turnover is €1.5 billion, of which €300 million corresponds to Latin America and the US. Mexico’s turnover is €100 million, and it is the most important country in Latin America and North America in terms of business opportunities.
What is the position of the group in the multiservice segment in Mexico?
It is the leading multiservice group in the country in terms of janitorial services, maintenance and facilities, security, gardening, temporary workers, and social services. It is also number one by number of employees.
What main expansion projects do you plan to implement in Mexico in 2012?
The first objective project is to improve quality and to strengthen ourselves with our most important clients; that is to say, to maintain what we have despite the difficulties. The second level of our development plan is to aim at lines of strategic development, considering that is a mixture between the way to provide services and products. Our idea is to give to the public administration a preventive treatment that will allow for the saving of important resources.
How would you assess Grupo EULEN’s environmental commitment to quality and concerns?
It is a sector that has a very clear demand, but has a small problem of competition. This issue revolved around the public security system’s legal power to sell services. This means that our main competition in private security is the state itself. In social security there is an essential problem, and that is that minimum wages are too low for the personnel that are used for private security services. Our objective is to look for higher profile workers with higher wages and to provide a better quality of service.
How would you rate Mexico as an investment destination and as a place to do business?
I think that it is easy to do business in countries with an emerging middle class and political stability that encourage the entrance of multinational enterprises. Mexico has these features. The lower-middle class Mexican has a concept of life in the short term that promotes consumerism, and this makes the economy robust.
© The Business Year