Our Story
Learn our story, leadership, and mission shaping manufacturing in Mexico.
Plastics Manufacturing in Mexico, Simplified
Tetakawi’s Manufacturing Campus model lets plastics manufacturers operate their own plant in Mexico, with move-in-ready space, skilled talent and trade programs already in place. Your tooling, your process parameters and your quality standards stay yours. Tetakawi runs the operating platform around them.
The Problem
Margin Lives in Uptime and Scrap
Plastics is a margin-sensitive business, and the margin is made or lost in two places: how many hours the presses actually run, and how much of what they make you can ship. Molding technicians, material handlers, trimmers, assemblers and inspectors all feed those two numbers, and turnover works directly against both. A crew that keeps changing is a scrap rate that keeps moving.
Mexico has the molding technicians and material handlers. But running a plant there takes more than industrial space. Whatever your plant runs, injection molding, extrusion, secondary fabrication, sonic welding or assembly, it needs three things:
- Operators and technicians recruited and kept
- Resin and tooling that clear customs on time
- Utilities and a building that is maintained
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 the Presses
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.
Recruit the Technicians You Need
Molding technicians, material handlers and inspectors are recruited, and transport and on-site medical help them stay. In a molding plant, turnover shows up in the job posting and the scrap report.
Protect the Tooling That Is Yours
You control your tooling, your process parameters and your specs. Tetakawi manages the facility and operating environment around your plant: utilities, grounds and material flow.
Keep Resin In and Product Moving
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
Plastics in Mexico Today
917
Plastics plants with more than 100 employees
$17.4B
Annual plastics and rubber exports from Mexico
83%
Of those exports go to the U.S.
Our Model
A Campus Model That Supports Plastics Production
Plastics competes on cost per part, uptime and delivery. The Campus model can lower overhead by up to about 30% against a standalone plant. You run the plant.
What stays in your name:
- Your tooling, your molds and your process parameters
- Your quality standards and your customer specifications
- Your presses, your suppliers and your product lines
- Your customers, your contracts and your pricing
Testimonials
What Manufacturers Say
Manufacturers who run their own plants on Tetakawi Campuses, in their own words.
“We focus on plastic injection molding here in Guaymas. Problems happen every day: borders run late, machines go down, power can be interrupted. Tetakawi has a response designed for those factors so we can react quickly and resolve them. The system is already integrated, and that is what lets us keep running.”
Marco López, Vice President and General Manager, Intec Group
“In Gemini we make plastic retainers that are assembled into seats for cars and trucks. Import-export rules in Mexico are changing a lot, but Tetakawi’s import-export team is very strong, and we meet all the Mexican requirements. Being inside the Manufacturing Campus gives us the opportunity to be a stable supplier.”
Mauricio García, Plant Manager, Gemini Group
“It’s very easy to underestimate the talent base that exists in Mexico. It has a manufacturing culture almost as strong as the United States has now, maybe stronger in certain markets. Operating in Mexico can also unlock new customers: we were able to win business because we established a base there.”
Jon Jensen, Manufacturing CEO, repeat Tetakawi client since 2001
FAQs
Questions Plastics Manufacturers Ask
The questions we get most often from plastics manufacturers looking at Mexico.
Who owns the tooling and the process parameters?
You do.
Your molds and tooling, your process parameters, your material specifications and your customer approvals stay in your name, and the plant runs to your work instructions. Tetakawi recruits and administers the workforce, runs the building and its utilities, and handles the Mexican side of customs and compliance around your operation. Tetakawi is not a contract manufacturer.
How do Mexico's import tariffs affect plastics?
It depends on where your resin and parts come from.
Mexico has raised import duties on plastic products and on several resins that arrive from countries it has no trade agreement with, and those rates have no expiry date. Goods that qualify for and claim USMCA preference, or preference under another Mexican agreement, are not affected. Resin sourced from a country without a Mexican agreement belongs in your cost model at the higher rate. As part of our due diligence, we help you work it out.
What plastics products are manufactured in Mexico?
Molding, extrusion, secondary fabrication and assembly, across automotive, appliance, HVAC, medical and packaging.
Mexican plants run injection molding, extrusion, blow molding, thermoforming, secondary fabrication, sonic welding, decorating and value-added assembly, for automotive interiors and under-hood parts, appliance and HVAC components, medical disposables, packaging and industrial goods. The case is strongest when direct labor content is meaningful, when tooling is already amortized or moving with you, and when the finished part can qualify for North American origin.
Where is plastics manufacturing concentrated in Mexico?
Estado de México, Guanajuato and Jalisco by plant count, and the northern corridors for anyone shipping north.
The plastics association (ANIPAC) counts about 5,200 plastics companies in Mexico employing more than 300,000 people directly, while INEGI’s business directory (DENUE) showed 917 plastics product plants with more than a hundred employees in May 2026, so the industrial-scale segment is under a thousand plants rather than several thousand. Molding follows its customers. Tetakawi runs five Manufacturing Campuses, in Guaymas, Empalme, Hermosillo, Saltillo and Mazatlán.
Why should plastics manufacturers 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 plastics work, that means the technicians and the building are in place, and resin and tooling move through our own cross-docks.
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 plastics manufacturers 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.
