What is the history of Nexeo Plastics in Mexico?

Nexeo will be celebrating its 50^th anniversary in 2023. In 2019, Nexeo Plastics was purchased by One Rock Capital, and since then we are a 100% plastics focused global distributor. We have been present in Mexico since 2011, and we began our operations with a focus on specialties and have since expanded our markets and our portfolio of products. We have invested significantly in our team to provide services not just within Mexico but to be sufficiently agile in the international import and export businesses. Mexico represents approximately 10% of North America operations, and 2022 was a year of significant growth for Nexeo Plastics in Mexico.

Did the Ukraine war impact your operations?

We have a significant European presence, representing about 30% of our global operations. The political issues there are difficult for everyone. Like many international companies, we operated in Russia before the war. We decided to close our business there and redirected our people to other activities in our European operations.

How is Nexeo Plastics Mexico investing in digitalization?

In June 2022, we launched our new digital platform, MyNexeo. We designed our new platform to be a tool for our customers so that they can not only place orders, but also search and compare products, view monthly offerings and the latest promotions, and track their orders in real-time.

MyNexeo also allows customers to view their bills, see quality certificates, and find all necessary information. We have exceeded our goals in terms of the number of users and received excellent feedback from our customers and suppliers. MyNexeo is a tool that incorporates elements of artificial intelligence to provide us with more data about our clients and more information about what our clients are looking for while improving our clients’ experiences and access to our services. However, we are dedicated to maintaining a personal relationship with the client, so our chat is operated by real people providing our clients with one-on-one customer service. We will be launching MyNexeo in Europe in 2023.

What differentiates you from other distributors?

Our clients have operations worldwide, and we need to be right there next to them. Our technical competence, digital platforms and our people are key differentiators in the distribution space. Nexeo Plastics is developing a team with a global scope, and this differentiates us from other distributors. We position the company as a global player through an intense focus on developing our team. We aspire to be a destination employer for talented professionals in this country. Our hiring process is focused on fostering diversity of thought, multicultural perspectives, regional diversity, and multilingual expertise. Distribution is a people-driven business, not an asset-driven one. People are our primary business, and we are investing in our team to be more agile in this international business landscape.

How is Nexeo Plastics incorporating sustainability in its operations?

When it comes to sustainability, we have two focuses. Our first sustainability focus is education. We are creating content for our clients and prospective clients to clarify and explain the environmental situation and help them determine what they want in terms of sustainable products. Our second focus as a business is on sustainability within our portfolio of products, providing biodegradable, compostable, recycled products, and so on. The reality is that the world wants greener products at the same cost, which is the great challenge we are facing as an industry—how to provide our clients with more sustainable products at a competitive price. Nexeo Plastics is a global player in these sustainability conversations.

What is your strategy for the coming year in Latin America?

We are growing organically in Latin America, and we have plans to continue fostering this regional growth. Costa Rica, for example, is a significant center of industry in Latin America, with many companies active in the country. Nexeo Plastics recently invested in a new distribution center in Costa Rica to support those clients. To facilitate greater agility, we are investing in bringing our products closer to our clients. Nexeo Plastics has 50 years of expertise, with a long-term focus on technical capacity. This expertise and our highly qualified team enable us to help our clients accelerate their product launches and facilitate their operations.