Our Story
Learn our story, leadership, and mission shaping manufacturing in Mexico.
HVAC Manufacturing in Mexico, Simplified
Tetakawi’s Manufacturing Campus model lets HVAC manufacturers operate their own plant in Mexico, with move-in-ready space, skilled talent and trade programs already in place. Your designs, your ratings and your quality system stay yours. Tetakawi runs the operating platform around them.
The Problem
Seasonal Peaks, Metal Costs, New Refrigerants
HVAC production is weather driven. A cooling season that runs hot pulls orders forward and a mild one pushes them back, so the same line has to build to a peak it cannot predict and then hold trained people through the trough. And the move off R-410A to A2L refrigerants has sent design and labeling back through validation, so the product itself is changing while the line has to keep building.
Mexico has the fabricators, brazers and wiring hands. But running a plant there takes more than industrial space. Whatever your plant runs, fabrication, coil and heat exchanger work, brazing, cabinet build or wiring, it needs three things:
- Operators and welders recruited and kept
- Metals and components that cross on schedule
- Compliance records that hold up in an 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 a Line That Swings Actually Needs
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 Peak, Support the Crew
Recruiting reaches past the immediate town when a season demands it, and the retention work, from transport to on-site medical, carries on through the slow months.
Protect the Ratings Your Product Carries
You control your designs, test data, and the ratings your product carries. Tetakawi manages the facility and operating environment around your plant: utilities, secure grounds, and material flow.
Move Material In, Move Units Out
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
HVAC in Mexico Today
$7.63B
Annual air conditioning exports from Mexico
675
HVAC and refrigeration plants in Mexico
100
Of those with more than 100 employees
Our Model
A Campus Model That Supports HVAC Production
HVAC competes on delivery, rated performance and cost per unit. 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 product designs, test data and agency listings
- Your production processes and your quality system
- Your equipment, 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.
“Our business is dynamic, so when we need more people we go further out in the region if that is what the ramp takes. For me it’s satisfying having this very healthy relationship with Tetakawi: bringing people, bringing talent, and keeping people here. Daycare, medical services and transportation are a big part of why people stay.”
Ricardo Gómez, Director of Operations, TE Connectivity
“Our customers are all knocking on our door asking us how much we can produce. And to grow and meet our customers’ demand, we’ve got to find the people to do it. When we first started talking about expanding into Mazatlán, there were people coming up with applications ready to go right away.”
Jeremy Main, Senior Vice President, Consolidated Precision Products
“You get people, plants, and processes, with compliance and logistics handled, so you can focus on serving your customers and transferring your culture. I have done this with two public companies and a couple of private ones, and nearly every plant I’ve opened in Mexico has been with Tetakawi.”
Jon Jensen, Manufacturing CEO, repeat Tetakawi client since 2001
FAQs
Questions HVAC Manufacturers Ask
The questions we get most often from HVAC manufacturers looking at Mexico.
Who owns the quality system and the agency listings?
You do.
Your product engineering, your quality management system, your test and rating data and your agency listings stay in your name and under your control, 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 the metals tariffs affect HVAC equipment?
It depends on how your product is classified.
HVAC equipment is steel, aluminum and copper, so much of it sits inside the Section 232 metals regime, which USMCA origin does not lift. Not every line is treated the same: some air conditioning subheadings carry a lower rate than the rest of the list, and articles with very little metal fall outside it. As part of our due diligence, we help you work it out.
What HVAC products are manufactured in Mexico?
Unitary and packaged units, air handlers, coils, blowers, controls and commercial refrigeration.
Much of it is built by equipment and component makers rather than a brand’s flagship assembly plant, and that is the range the Campus model fits. The case is strongest when direct labor content is meaningful, when the product is bulky relative to its value, and when the finished good can qualify for North American origin.
Where is HVAC manufacturing concentrated in Mexico?
The northeast.
Nuevo León led state exports of air conditioning machinery in 2023, followed by Coahuila and Baja California, and INEGI’s business directory (DENUE) counted 675 ventilation, heating, air conditioning and commercial refrigeration plants nationally in May 2026. Tetakawi runs five Manufacturing Campuses, in Guaymas, Empalme, Hermosillo, Saltillo and Mazatlán. Which one fits depends on your labor profile, your material flow, and where your customers are.
Why should HVAC 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 HVAC work, that means the people for a ramp are in place, and the building fit-out is scoped with you before you sign.
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.
