YFY Jupiter opens plant in Cd. Juarez

Shortly after starting operations, the Taiwanese company YFY Jupiter opened a plant in Ciudad Juarez, which is the first plant of such company in Latin America.  The event was attended by directives from Taiwan and the United States, in addition of directives from other companies, Tatung personal, another Taiwanese company, as support gesture.

This project took a year and a half of planning and about three months for its installation in the buildings.  The new maquila required an investment of about 2.5 million dollars and has generated 80 direct jobs in this initial stage.

YFYF Jupiter is a world supplier of packages for different products and companies, from tennis packages to televisions and computers.  The directives of the company chose Ciudad Juarez for two main reasons, according to the YFY Asia president, Vicent Chen.  The first one: company customers requested a plant to be settled in Juarez to supply its packaging products.  The second reason is that there are many companies here of information technologies (IT,) such as Pegatron and Foxconn.  “If we install a plant in the city, we can collaborate in a closest way,” said Chen.

Jupiter YFY CEO in the United States, Mitch Crews, talked about what implied to settle a plant in the city.  “We had a directives meeting a year ago in which we talked about Mexico.  We wanted to come here.  And we decided that we needed to grow or, otherwise, we had to go home.  We decided to grow.  Vincent vision is what brought us here.  This is only the beginning of YFY Jupiter in Juarez and Mexico,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Sunny Lee, vice-president of YFY Jupiter, added that they expect to become a solid company in Ciudad Juarez, in addition of bringing different technology and bring something new.  “During the first year we maybe will not grow quickly in employees’ terms, but we have a plan to settle another plant and expand our capabilities in the third year.  We expect reaching 150 employees,” she explained.

The way of selling YFY Jupiter services is through original design manufacturers (ODM.)  “Our main customers are Dell, HP and Lexmark.  We sell them through ODM, which are Foxconn and Jabil,” said Raymundo Sepulveda, project manager.

In this initial stage, the new maquila starts with one shift.  However, Sepulveda said that an expansion plan is to have a second shift, according to customers require.  There are also growing expectations in the machinery aspect.  “We have five machines.  We expect having ten.  It is also a long term plan, but it is what the directives are looking for, in addition of being present in other parts of Mexico,” said Sepulveda.

Carlos Liao, General Director and Head of the Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei underlined the importance of YFY.  “YFY in Taiwan is one of the most emblematic companies, most prodigious and elderly in paper cellulose production, very famous in Southeast Asia.  The company, like other novelty Taiwanese companies, has seen Mexico as one of the optimum partners in overseas,” he explained

Recycling: fundamental for YFY Jupiter

A distinctive aspect of the company is that it manufacturers its packages with recycled cardboard from some customers and of local recycling centers.  The company chose as manufacture material molded pulp, which is obtained from 100 % recycled material.  This aspect, far from representing a disadvantage, is an advantage.  “For us receiving a cardboard as recycled as possible is way better because a more virgin cardboard takes longer to be processed,” said Roman Flores, business development manager.  Regarding water is also recycled.  This allows them having a production capability of 4 metric tons daily.

Mexico: important destination for investment

Carlos Liao also shared that Mexico is an important destination for Taiwanese companies regarding investment.  He underlined that Mexico is the second most important commercial partner of Taiwanese businessmen, only after Brazil, but it is the first Taiwan destination for investment in the American continent.  In turn Taiwan represents the eleventh commercial partner for Mexico.