Interview with Diana Rico Rodríguez, commercial director, during her participation in Expo Rujac 2024
Thank you Diana for being with us, and thank you for your time and for the space. Please share with us for our followers and friends on social media, who is Diana Rico? – Of course Roy, for those who don‘t know me, my name is Diana Rico Rodríguez. This year I celebrated 22 years in this fascinating motor industry. I studied Business Administration at the Universidad de las Américas Puebla, graduated in 2002 and joined one of the best companies in the automotive market, Federal Mogul. There I started as a planner and it helped me a lot, because I learned about purchasing, logistics, inventories; But my passion has always been marketing, so they gave me the opportunity to lead the motor lines. There I began my career in marketing and the commercial part, which are my passion. I spent 12 years at Federal Mogul and today I have been with First Brands Group for 10 years. Thank you Diana. As topic 2, explain to us, what is First Brands Group? – Of course, as you know, First Brands Group is an American firm, which has recently acquired many high–quality brands and leaders in their segments. In Mexico, it markets the brands FRAM, Autolite, Trico, Carter, ANCO, American Brakeblock, Strongarm, Raybestos, Reese, Hopkins, Luberfiner and Airtex, 12 brands of great quality and prestige. The acquisition of brands in various markets began with Trico, which are windshield wipers; then FRAM, which are filters; then the Autolite spark plugs; then all the gasoline pumps and Carter water pumps (formerly Airtex/ASC), and to consolidate what we already had in the windshield wiper part, all the plants and the recognized brand ANCO were purchased. Then the Raybestos hydraulic brake part was acquired 2 years ago. In the heavy equipment part to American Brakeblock; then to the Strongarm fifth–door shock absorbers; and later to Hopkins, which sells all the cleaning part for the car; also the Luberfiner brand of filters for heavy equipment, and the Reese brand was finished, which is all the towing part for vehicles. So, First Brands Group is a very large and very strong company, with a great global presence. In which countries does First Brands Group have a presence? Of course. We really have a global presence, with plants in China, Europe, the United States and Mexico. Here we have one of the windshield wiper plants in Matamoros. Another water pump plant in Puebla, which used to be Talleres Mecánicos Montserrat; and another plant for brakes in Los Reyes La Paz. So we do have a strong presence worldwide and also in Mexico. With all these brands and thousands of products, what kind of segments do you cover? “That‘s an interesting question. We have applications for light equipment and heavy equipment, and I think it is the ‘boom‘ in the market. Well, we are really working hard to achieve greater coverage for the vehicle fleet in Mexico, light, heavy, motorcycles, of the Chinese, European and American brands, for the vehicles that circulate the most in our country. Perfect Diana. Also tell us for our followers, what are some of your main achievements as a marketer, as an expert and with more than 22 years in this industry? Well, in reality one never stops learning. 20 years ago in this business there was talk of the “big fights” for coverage analysis, today those terms and brands have already been displaced. All distribution channels have changed tremendously. So the challenge is very interesting, we have to listen to the mechanic, the end user, the customers, in the different distribution channels; give them what they need and develop useful tools for them. We also have to help ourselves with Artificial Intelligence, and create these experiences for the end user. Quality is a very important concept for products, and that is why we seek to offer the best support and service from the maintenance and installation of the parts, and go further, developing concepts different from what comes from Original Equipment. What do I mean? To give you an example, the gas pump; it is a product in which we have a better development than the Original Team, from the sieve and others, and so also each of our products. So they are interesting challenges and we have to go to these market trends. Thank you Diana. Share with us some of the product families you handle in Mexico. –Pues tenemos toda la parte de lo que nosotros le llamamos mantenimiento-reparación. Ustedes ya […]
