Our Story
Learn our story, leadership, and mission shaping manufacturing in Mexico.
Appliance Manufacturing in Mexico, Simplified
Tetakawi’s Manufacturing Campus model lets appliance suppliers operate their own plant in Mexico, with move-in-ready space, a workforce recruited as volume climbs, 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
Priced at the Shelf, Squeezed at the Plant
Appliance programs are won on cost and kept on delivery. The retail price point is set upstream, and it flows down to every molded part, stamping, and harness in the box. Volume is high, it is seasonal, and it is unforgiving of a line that cannot hold its rate.
Mexico builds appliances at volume and has the labor for it. But running a plant there takes more than industrial space. Whatever your plant runs, molding, stamping, wire harness, motors, controls or final assembly, it needs three things:
- A workforce recruited and trained to a volume schedule
- Customs and trade filings that hold to a delivery date
- Material and origin records that hold up at the border
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 a High-Volume 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 Every Shift You Add
Tetakawi recruits operators and technicians for each shift you add, and keeps hiring as volume climbs through a peak season. You set the requirements and the standard for every role.
Protect the System Your Customer Checks
Your quality system, your certifications, your customer approvals. Tetakawi runs the facility around them: utilities brought to the building, secure grounds, and controlled material flow.
Keep Material Moving at Full Volume
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
Appliance in Mexico Today
237
Appliance plants in Mexico
75
Of those with more than 100 employees
$5.1B
Annual large-appliance exports to the U.S.
Our Model
A Campus Model That Supports Appliance Production
Appliance runs on cost discipline and fast changeovers. The Campus model can lower overhead by up to about 30% against a standalone plant. You run the plant.
- Move-in-ready space for molding, stamping, assembly, and test, from components through sub-assemblies
- 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 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
“We are working three shifts, five days a week. The people are very important to keep our operations running, and the resources the Campus has in that area are very good. They have a strong team hiring and screening candidates: if we need ten people and request them with time, they have ten people when we need them.”
Mauricio García, Plant Manager, Gemini Group
“How do we drive costs down? How do we make ourselves competitive in a commercial environment? We needed a partner that helped us compete on cost, and that was what Tetakawi offered us. When I started in Guaymas we had 350 employees in one building. Now we’re in three buildings with nearly 800 employees.”
Brian Berich, Director of Operations, BAE Systems
FAQs
Questions Appliance Suppliers Ask
The questions we get most often from appliance 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. Your product, your tooling and your approvals stay yours. Tetakawi is not a contract manufacturer.
How do tariffs affect appliance manufacturing in Mexico?
It depends on your bill of materials.
USMCA is still in force, and appliances that qualify as originating enter the United States without ordinary duty. Large household appliances also sit on the Section 232 steel derivative list, which is collected on top of any USMCA preference. How much of the unit it reaches, and where the steel was melted and poured, decide the rate. As part of our due diligence, we help you work it out.
What appliance components are manufactured in Mexico?
Four kinds of work, broadly.
Metal forming: stamping, deep drawing, and fabricated panels. Polymers: injection molded housings, liners, trim, and seals. Electrical: wire harness, connectors, motors, and controls. And assembly, from sub-assemblies through to finished units. The work spans major appliances, small appliances, and commercial equipment, and most of it sits with component and sub-assembly suppliers rather than the brand owners.
Where is appliance manufacturing concentrated in Mexico?
The Bajío and the northeast.
On INEGI’s 2024 Economic Census, Querétaro leads national gross production value at about a quarter of the total, with Coahuila, Guanajuato and Nuevo León carrying further capacity across components and assembly. Tetakawi operates five Manufacturing Campuses, in Guaymas, Empalme, Hermosillo, Saltillo and Mazatlán, and which one fits depends on your labor profile, your material flow, and where your customers are.
Why should appliance 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 appliance work, that means the people for a peak and the building are in place, and the line keeps moving.
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 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.
