Commercial and Marketing Services company founded to support brands and projects all over the world to do business in the American Markets. North America is one of the largest markets in the world where everyone wants to be. We at the Northern Cross can help untangle the complexities of the most competitive markets in the United States and Mexico. With our 20+ years of marketing, commercial and operations experience doing business in these markets we can facilitate the entrance and provide better chances of success.In the highly competitive North American market it’s not enough to secure space at retail. For goods and services to succeed and establish Brand Permanence, an integrated Business + Marketing Plan is necessary. We tailor solutions every step of the brand introduction or relaunch journey, from opening doors to our client-partners at retail, to business and creative strategy, to media strategy, placement and optimization, to production. www.thenortherncross.com

Major responsibilities included consolidation and growth of the business with strategic business partners. Manage the operations of the manufacturing plant in Mexico including production, purchasing, R&D, and Finance. Responsible for the P&L of the Region.Major accomplishments: Build a 3-year plan (2020-2022) to turn the Mexico operations into a profitable business with the leverage of the USA business by transforming the business development strategy.  Managed the challenges of the 2020 pandemic that resulted in a 35% drop in sales which forced to change the business plan and strategy to regain growth trend. Negotiation with the factory union and workers to achieve better conditions, terminating an illegal strike promoted by the workers and establishing relationship with a new union. Established and consolidated a new operations team, including a new Factory Mgr, H&S Mgr, FSQ Mgr, Supply Chain Mgr, Purchasing Mgr, implementing a new organizational structure.  Directly contacted and established a business relationship with the 2 of the largest breakfast cereal brands in the world. Built a new commercial team to serve the US and Mexico markets from Mexico promoting a Commercial Director. Negotiated and renewed contract with the number 1 worldwide cookie brand to serve the Mexican market with local manufacturing. Established FDA required conditions to import products into the US from Mexico and European factories. The Mexico business operational margin increased from a loss of 1.4 million Euros in 2018 to 0.5 million Euros in 2022 by increasing the gross margin from 8.3% to 25.7%. Build a 3-year plan (2023-2025) that includes:o 24% business increase in 2023 and 12% in 2024o Expected 2024 profit of 4.0 million Euros.o 13 million Euros investment in capacity and efficiency in the Mexico plant.o Key worldclass CPG business contract renewal as a based condition to justify a project capex for a new manufacturing facility.

In 2015, was promoted as Market Director. Main responsibility to develop and consolidate existing strategic accounts in the U.S. market, implementing a relationships model focused on the private label sector.Major accomplishments: Built a business development team with cultural adaptability, category management, a team from Spain with experience in internal processes and manufacturing capabilities to able to negotiate and support the particular needs of the North American customers. Deployed a commercial plan based on 3 channels (Retail, B2B, and Distributors) with a team focused on short-term and a team focused on long-term strategic account development with the goal to increase the business to justify an investment of a US manufacturing facility.  Established resources needed to develop the business including product development, quality assurance, and logistics solution. Negotiated incentive terms with the Seguin Economic Development Office, Guadalupe County, and the State of Texas to develop a 100-million-dollar manufacturing plant project that would create 200 jobs. The total incentive obtained reached 6.2 million dollars exceeding the original goal by 20%.  Established relationship with the 2nd largest breakfast cereal world-class brand:o Negotiating terms and conditions for a manufacturing agreement that became the customer’s first project for the US Market to be sourced from a manufacturing facility outside the US and the largest single product manufacturing contract signed by the company, with expected revenue of over 40 million Euros in a 2 year term.o Direct responsibility leading the execution of the project from start to launch.o Negotiated and developed a project for an 8 million dollars investment to install a cereal bar production line to serve Mexican market. o Direct hands-on involvement in the contract terms negotiation and lead the project execution from start to launch. Revenue of 50 million dollar (15% higher than expected).

Hired as a Business Development Manager to consolidate the company´s first strategic account in the retail sector in U.S.A. Major accomplishments were: Built a cookie and cracker project development pipeline, focusing on mainstream products with larger revenue and higher relevance to the category buyer’s score card. Developed and launched an upscaled organic pasta portfolio made in Italy. Exceeded the estimated yearly gross margin by 75%. Able to learn the industry key strategic facts to develop a successful business. Negotiated an agreement with the strategic U.S. retailer committing to build a manufacturing facility in Texas to develop and manufacture all their private label cookies, crackers needs. Signed a 7-year contract with expected revenue of 30 million dollars.

Major responsibilities are to support the CEO on main strategic decisions and to help maintain the key relationships with customers and strategic vendors.Participate in annual board meetings and strategic long term planning.

Printing and Document Services and customized solutions for corporate businessesIn a competitive market, where consumables are considered commodity products, motivated the change of the business strategy. The integration of OEM hardware partners and the development of printing services with customized solutions.Foreseeing a market trend of the Chinese consumables entering the U.S. with better cost and equivalent to OEM quality, developed early business relationship with Chinese suppliers being the first to market to offer OEM equivalent products which also allowed the development of printing services to corporate businesses, lowering their direct operational cost by 35%.ACCOMPLISHMENTS Lead the company into a boutique type business model, from a transactional business reseller to a partnership business relationship with customized printing and document management solutions inserted in the customer’s key processes. Developed strong business relationship with vendors in China which improved the competitive edge, having the best prices and best quality in the market. Built and trained a technical sale team. Built a technical service team. Increased the bottom-line profit due to a service orientation strategy and solutions, which meant lower revenue but higher contribution and profitability. Develop new corporate Financial and Health industry customers. Increased the transaction level on each customer, providing higher-margin products and services. Developed a retail project and career opportunity for company executives. Retail stores owned by senior executives. Transformed the Retail Company into a franchise business model, which allowed faster growth with less investment. Raised working capital with an investment group to face the expected growth of the printing services. After 1 year working together moved to U.S.A. for personal reasons and left the company´s management responsibilities exclusively assigned to the new investment group.

Printing consumables remanufacturing plantHired as a Production Manager in charge of a 4000 sq. foot laser printer cartridge remanufacturing shop with 20 employees in a fast-paced new industry. Challenged continually with new product lines, which required research and process development to meet a demanding quality to match the OEM products. The increasing demand and complexity of the production processes and new specialized product lines forced the company to relocate the plant into a 55000 sq. foot facility with over 200 employees. Promoted as Operations Director, acquired new responsibilities to lead the operational growth from start to finish, including the new plant design, production lines based on Kanban processes, new procurement sources and supply chain processes, inventory, distribution, and logistics. ACCOMPLISHMENTS Designed the new facility’s workflow and layout with specialized product lines. Increased productivity with conveyor belt and Kanban inventory systems. Designed and implemented efficiency enhancements in order to generate more than 15% cost reduction. Created Production specialty lines with key high trained leaders in each brand. The new plant layout design and the specialty-production lines resulted in a 20% increase in overall productivity. Develop business relationships with new and larger vendors. Created Customized packaging and drop shipment services to key customers.

Textile Company for Hugo Boss for the local market and other local clothing brand namesHired as a Production Planning Manager. Supported the forecast developed by the Sales department. Planned and scheduled production according to the plant´s capacity. Reported to the Operations Manager.ACCOMPLISHMENTS Implemented the Gantt chart system to follow through the productivity levels of each production line and provided a quick and accurate response over forecasting production requirements.