Our Story
Learn our story, leadership, and mission shaping manufacturing in Mexico.
Automotive Manufacturing in Mexico, Simplified
Tetakawi’s Manufacturing Campus model lets automotive suppliers operate their own plant in Mexico, with move-in-ready space, a workforce recruited as you ramp, and trade programs already in place. Your plant, your people, and your quality system stay yours. Tetakawi runs the operating platform around them.
The Problem
Program Pressure Without Margin for Error
Automotive suppliers work inside a squeeze. OEMs expect annual cost reductions, flawless quality, and an SOP date that does not move, while trade policy keeps moving the landed-cost math. The constraint is rarely the process. It is standing up a plant fast enough, staffing it, and holding a delivery schedule your customer scores you on.
Mexico has the trades and the tier-one supply base. But running a plant there takes more than industrial space. Whatever your plant runs, stamping, machining, molding, wire harness or assembly, it needs three things:
- A workforce recruited and trained to a ramp schedule
- Customs and trade filings that hold to a delivery date
- Compliance records that survive a customer audit
You can build all that from scratch, or you can operate inside a Tetakawi Campus.
| Traditional Site Selection | Tetakawi Campus Model |
|---|---|
| Find a building and fit it out yourself | Move-in-ready space on an established Campus |
| Build HR, payroll, and labor systems from scratch | Recruiting, payroll, and benefits administered for your plant |
| Staff a ramp with no local recruiting network | Recruiters already working the market before you arrive |
| Coordinate recruiters, customs brokers, and advisors on your own | One partner for recruiting, customs, and administration |
| Establish your own Mexican entity, IMMEX, and customs process | Import and export in Mexico under Tetakawi’s IMMEX authorization |
| Manage a patchwork of vendors and their contracts | One U.S.-based agreement, with the work run on site |
Our Approach
What Runs Around Your Line
Every Campus sits in a region with an established manufacturing workforce. Three things run around your operation: the people, the building, and the movement of material across the border.
Staff the Ramp as It Climbs
Tetakawi recruits operators, technicians, and quality staff in the local market, and keeps hiring as your volume climbs. You set the requirements and the standard for every role.
Protect What Your Customer Audits
You control quality, certifications, and customer approvals. Tetakawi manages the facility and operating environment around your plant: utilities, secure grounds, and controlled material flow.
Keep Material Moving to the Line
In Mexico, Tetakawi is the importer and exporter of record; entering the United States, your company is. Tetakawi keeps the customs and inventory record, and a licensed Mexican broker files each entry.
Statistics
Automotive in Mexico, and Our Role
2,100+
Auto parts companies in Mexico
$119B
Annual auto parts production in Mexico
15+
Automotive manufacturers on our Campuses
Our Model
A Campus Model Built for Mexico’s Automotive Sector
Automotive runs on predictable execution and reliable logistics. The Campus model can lower overhead by up to about 30% against a standalone plant. You run the plant.
- Move-in-ready space for components and assemblies, passenger vehicle through aftermarket
- Recruiting pipeline for operators, technicians, and quality roles
- Material enters under Tetakawi’s IMMEX authorization, with Tetakawi as importer and exporter of record
- Payroll, social security contributions, permits and the Mexican entity’s tax filings handled by Tetakawi
Testimonials
What Automotive Suppliers Say
Automotive manufacturers who run their own plants on Tetakawi Campuses, in their own words.
“Ours is a very busy business. We ship around seven trucks a day, so getting them to the border is a very strategic point. With an operation this size, disruption is critical. Right now it is transparent to us. It goes smoothly every day, and that is a very good service for us.”
Ricardo Gómez, Director of Operations, TE Connectivity
“We are here because we are the main retainers supplier in North America, and staying in Saltillo keeps us near the main OEMs in Mexico. Being inside the Manufacturing Campus gives us the opportunity to be a stable supplier, with low turnover and on-time deliveries.”
Mauricio García, Plant Manager, Gemini Group
“It is very easy to get hung up when you build a new factory, move a factory, or launch a new product for a customer, so speed of execution matters. You have a partner with a strong process orientation. This is how we build a plant, here is how our timeline works, here is when we need you to make decisions, here is when we have gate reviews.”
Jon Jensen, Manufacturing CEO, repeat Tetakawi client since 2001
FAQs
Questions Automotive Suppliers Ask
The questions we get most often from automotive suppliers looking at Mexico.
Who owns the quality system if I manufacture in Mexico?
You do.
Your quality system, certifications and customer approvals stay in your name, and the plant in Mexico runs under your quality system. Tetakawi holds none of them. Tetakawi is not a contract manufacturer.
How do tariffs affect automotive manufacturing in Mexico?
It depends on your bill of materials.
USMCA is still in force, and parts that qualify as originating enter the United States without ordinary duty. The Section 232 tariff on vehicles and parts sits on top of that. Whether it reaches your part comes down to whether the part is on the list, whether it qualifies as originating, and the content rules behind that, and those rules have moved more than once since 2025. As part of our due diligence, we help you work it out.
What automotive components are manufactured in Mexico?
Four kinds of work, broadly.
Metal forming: stamping, machining, and fabricated components. Polymers and interiors: molded parts, trim, and sealing systems. Electrical and electronic: wire harness, connectors, sensors, and power electronics. And assembly work, from sub-assemblies through to modules that ship straight to an OEM line. On Tetakawi Campuses this is mostly Tier 2 and Tier 3 suppliers, with some Tier 1s, and the work spans passenger vehicle, commercial vehicle, and aftermarket.
Where is automotive manufacturing concentrated in Mexico?
Coahuila first, then Nuevo León, Guanajuato, Puebla and the Bajío.
Coahuila is the country’s largest auto parts producing state, at about 14 percent of national output on the latest figures from the auto parts association (INA), and Stellantis, General Motors and Daimler Truck all assemble there. Tetakawi runs five Manufacturing Campuses, in Guaymas, Empalme, Hermosillo, Saltillo and Mazatlán, and which one fits depends on your programs, your material flow, and where your customers are.
Why should automotive suppliers consider a Tetakawi Campus?
A Tetakawi Manufacturing Campus is a turnkey operating environment: you run your own factory, and Tetakawi runs everything around it.
You keep full control of production, quality and your IP. Tetakawi is not a contract manufacturer.
Tetakawi provides the building, the workforce, the import and export operation, and the Mexican entity with its permits and registrations.
For an automotive program, that means the plant, the people and the border crossing are in place, with a typical launch of about three to six months.
How can Tetakawi help us evaluate expanding into Mexico?
Four steps, in order.
1. Get in touch. A conversation about what you are hoping to achieve in Mexico, and why now.
2. Measure ROI. We build the business case with you: the full cost of running your operation on a Campus, the risks and the trade-offs, and which Campus fits. If more than one could work, we build both.
3. Site visit. Walk the Campus, meet the people who would run your account, and talk with automotive suppliers already operating there.
4. Launch and grow. When you give the green light, the same team that helped you build the case guides the launch.
Build a Predictable Path to Manufacturing in Mexico
Start with a conversation, not a commitment: tell us your goals, and we’ll help you decide whether a Campus fits.
