Tijuana, BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO.   Co-Production International (CPI) helped celebrate the Smiths Group’s Mexico’s operation, Smiths Conexion de Mexico, ten-year anniversary last month.  CPI, a regional expert in establishing manufacturing companies in Mexico, worked with Smiths to expand their worldwide manufacturing activities into the northern border city of Tijuana and has continued to support their activities in the region over the last decade.  Smiths Interconnect specializes in advanced technologies that serve the contraband detection, medical, aerospace, defense, microwave and energy industries.

The celebrations came as Smiths announced more than double the pre-tax profits in the last 6 months ending on January 31st, compared to the year before. The Smiths Detection division, part of the 166-year-old British engineering conglomerate, announced that sales of x-ray detectors and security sensors along with the sale of three non-core businesses had boosted dividends and investor confidence during the first quarter of 2017.  This March, Smiths also unveiled new company-wide branding, highlighting how their growth and evolution as a company means to keep them relevant and steadfast in the marketplace.  Smiths is one of the UK’s largest engineering companies with five focused divisions under its umbrella and over 23,000 employees worldwide, including their plant in Tijuana.  

It has been a privilege working with the Smiths group since 2006. Together we built their 42,000-square foot facility in Tijuana and integrated a stellar administrative team all the while integrating a few of their divisions under one roof,

said Veronica Contreras, CPI’s VP of Sales and Marketing who has been working with the Smiths group since inception. CPI has focused on helping Smiths grow it’s Tijuana manufacturing operation providing Smiths with cost effective administrative solutions in Mexico; human resources, payroll, accounting and international trade and compliance.  

When interviewed about Smiths Interconnect’s reasons for expanding nearshore, the quality and talent of Mexico’s manufacturing workforce was a driving factor for Domingo Matos, Head of Operations for Smiths Interconnect.

I think first and foremost is the level of talent that is available in Tijuana to support our industry.  If you look back the number of technical schools, the number of business schools that have been developed, the fact that there are multiple decades of world class companies coming into the area that provide the training ground really for a world class workforce, that is absolutely one of the biggest contributors,” Matos elaborated.

Last month Smiths rolled out new branding to further enforce their commitment to their customers, both in how they operate internally as well in the marketplace.  Their new slogan, “Connecting as One,” shows the unity of Smiths’ divisions and their ability to understand their customer’s demand and cross-platform needs.  Working together, bringing technology to life and connecting as one, are evident in their success in Mexico and their partnerships in the region, especially with CPI.

CPI has been a valuable partner for us.  We use CPI’s expertise in the local marketplace, in recruiting our people, in administering some of the things that CPI is really good at in infrastructure, and that allows us to focus on our core business which at the end of the day are designing and manufacturing our products for the marketplace.  So, it’s been a really great relationship.  Obviously very successful because we’ve been at it for over ten years and we hope to continue that relationship,” Matos elaborated.

Smiths Interconnect’s rebranding is a part of major changes in the company over the last year and a half with major C-level changes in their group bringing in a new CEO and CFO, amongst others.  The changes proved positive through reorganization and unification of their brand’s approach to the marketplace, cumulating with recent announcements in higher-than-expected profits, the acquisition of their rival Morpho Detection nearing completion, and unburdening of smaller divisions in the group. Brands under Smiths include EMC Technology, Hypertac, IDI, Lorch, Millitech, RF Labs, Sabritec and TECOM.

“The strategy has been to integrate many of those businesses because we have common technologies and common customers at the end of the day and to revamp our whole way we’re going to market.  We’ve become much more holistic and homogenous in how we’re going to market and our customers are seeing that as advantageous.  We’re simplifying our business, simplifying our interfaces with them and providing solutions on a completely different level than we had in the past as individual small businesses” said Matos.

“Over time, interactions among our brands have increased across many of our markets,” echoed Roland Carter, president of Smiths Interconnect in a company press release last month. “Aligning all this activity under the Smiths Interconnect name will make us a more streamlined partner, enhancing our customers’ access to the combined strength of our products, expertise and application knowledge.”

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