Mr. Samuel Nicolayevsky & Carlos Kahan , Xanor de Mexico , SA de CV
Release Date: 0000-00-00
Could you please introduce the company and give some background information about Xanik?We started the company 27 years ago and through the years it has changed names. It started as Xanik, then we changed to Specialty Valve, and in 2007 we build our new corporate image under the name of Xanor de Mexico SA de CV. However we have change our name it is important to mention that our commercial name and brand has always been Xanik. We decide to give this new identity to our company since Mr. Carlos Kahan, my son in law, join the company and become its president. Hence it was important to give our company a kind of fresh begging. But to answer your question, I have been around the industry since the early 60s. Indeed, I started in 1962 with an industrial supply company. We built up some companies and the last one that I had, before the actual one, was Ferreteria Baños that we closed in 1976. Then I founded Xanik. Since I started I said to myself that we were not going to be the biggest valve company but the best and that principle is still in our minds – we will always be the best at what we do. And the best means to deliver the best quality on time. Quality means a lot for this company? It is our premise that is why we are UOP approved to supply valves in all pipe classes for the HF Alkylation units. This approval was a great milestone for us since there were only three valves companies approved in the world and we were the fourth one and the only Mexican to get it. We are proud to say that we are the only company in this country that makes these types of valves. Besides being the only Mexican company UOP approved. We were also the first ones to be approved by ISO 9000 for metal mechanics in the country in1994. The excellences of our valves have made us increase considerably our exports all over the world. Today we are selling to the United States and Canada, Venezuela, Colombia, Israel, South Africa. In Europe we sell to Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece, Poland, Finland, Italy Korea, Singapore, Kuwait, and Australia. Furthermore, 4 years ago we started to work in China; our penetration in that market was mainly in valves for alkylation process, and special alloy and High Pressure.
What you mention about our internationalization process is very interesting since a lot of the people we have interviewed do not want to leave the Mexican market?
The world is bigger than Mexico. The competition is less outside. Why? Because in Mexico there is not a fair competition, a lot of people in Mexico import Made in USA and Made in China and they go to the United States and get a certificate that says Made in the USA – zero taxes and then bring the products back. As for China, we cannot compete with those prices. And competition will get tougher this coming December the 12th since the compensatory taxes from China are going to be over for Mexico.Our market is not Mexico, our market is the world. We have proven that in the past two years where we have expanded our client base around the world. Today our business is 70 percent international and 30 percent local, while a few years ago it was the other way around. However, is important to mention that even we have considerable exports, one of our policy mantras is that “Whatever we can buy in Mexico, we buy it here.” Of course, there are certain types of materials that are not produced in Mexico therefore we have to import them from USA Canada or Europe. However, I can tell you that 80 percent of our acquisitions are done in Mexico. Even prices can be a little higher, we want to promote Mexican workmanship and demonstrate that Mexican products can have the best quality standards.
Within these years you have mange grow the company and diversify your markets, what has been the key to success?
Quality, quality, quality. We have always focused on it. So we have to be very careful with the quality we deliver.That is why; we are looking for new changes in the specs around the world. After what happened in the Gulf with BP a couple of years ago the specs are changing, the quality is increasing, and the requirements are more stringent. We do not want to be the last ones to make those changes; we want to be the first ones, to achieve that we have to buy new equipment, not only machinery but also quality equipment for testing. We are updated to the world tendencies of Quality. We buy all the new specs and we follow them and we try to apply them to our valves. Even today most of our sales are done abroad we do one single quality. Our products are the same all over the world.
As you mention you offer very good quality however there are other Mexican companies that also mange to have good quality with competitive prices. How does Xanor differentiates itself?
What makes us different is that we specialize in high pressure valves and special materials rather than commodity low pressure valves. We make very special alloys and complicated valves. We specialize and do not go into commodities, that is why competition in Mexico does not really apply to us however we do compete around the world with our different products: HF valves, pressure seal valves, bar stock valve, for this last type of valve we have a great competitive advantage that is a very short delivery time. When I say short deliveries - we are talking between two and four weeks. As our special valves de average deliver time in the industry is 40 weeks and we do it in 12-16 weeks. Also, unlike other companies we make everything from scratch. This means that we do not have stock since most of what we do is according to the special needs of the customer.Furthermore, CFE and UOP have set our standards in deed our people work very close to UOP, we have very good and experienced people in the valve world they are working with UOP to improve the products. Everything we do is in-house; everything is manufactured in Mexico under our designs and specifications. We have over 8,000 patterns of all sizes and shapes that have come out from our facilities. Our capacity also allows that for some special valves or orders, we can make a pattern to address a specific need or solve one precise problem. Saying that, one of our big advantages is that if our clients have a problem we really go into the necessities and solve them. We are always near them.At Xanor, we do a pre-sale, where we go to the customer and see what they need and why they want it, because sometimes they do not know what they need, and we have to work with them. Then we do the sale, which involves the negotiation. Then we do the after-sale, which is service. I would say that, in Mexico, we are the only ones that gives an after-sales service. Part of our services is also to readapt/ repair other brands that are use within Pemex facilities. We are able to repair other brands for Pemex because through our engineers and through the people we have in the plant – a valve is a valve after all –we are able to fix whatever is inside the valve.
As we have discussing you have been in this industry for a long time. How different is it now from 14 years ago?
When I started with the supply companies there was no quality and in those days there was no manufacturing in Mexico, everything was imported. Pemex and CFE, which are the end users, did not require any quality. They just had to have products to solve the problem. That was the way it worked.However, slowly but surely things have change and the quality needs in Mexico have evolved. This evolution has gone in two different ways within: CFE and Pemex. In the case of the CFE, it become very quality orientated; that is the reason why CFE, compared to Pemex, has no major accidents in their plants. Indeed, CFE has an approval list of suppliers, they have a lab and they constantly check you, there is even an inspector from CFE that visit the manufacturers and checks everything. In the case of Pemex, back in time they used to have a list of approved vendors but they do not have it anymore. This is because the Congress said it was not equal for everyone, therefore Pemex is the only oil company in the world without a vendor approval list, anyone can sell to them hence quality can be compromise.
If we come back here in five years what will we find in your company?
Since Carlos came into the company almost five years ago with new ideas, he has been rebuilding the whole structure and concept of the business. So 5 years from now I hope I will still be here. I hope this company will keep on growing.Today our annual growth is between 15-20 percent and our goal is to increase it. Therefore, we have made a lot of changes in the past five years. We have changed our systems and software. We have changed our procedures and physically the company. We have made some improvements to the machinery and we have bought a lot of equipment for quality assurance. We have also trained our people very well, not only in the technical issues but as people as well. Twice a week a professor comes in and teaches English to whomever wants to take the course. Our people are improving themselves. Furthermore, we also have implanted a new program Xanik Siglo XXI (XXI Century) that brings our people together to brainstorm new ideas for the company, at all levels. We are open to hear their ideas and involve them in the changes and growth we want to achieve. Our main goal is to grow the company. However, when I say grow it is not only sales-wide or profit-wise. Of course we want to have more sales but in order to have more sales you have to have better people; hence we want to grow in hand with our people. We want to give our own people the opportunity to grow through the company and make the company grow that way. Our intention is not to just make a profit. Our intention is to pay our people well but in return we demand from them quality in their work. This is one of our goals and I hope we can maintain this for a long time because at the end oil companies are people.
What is your final message?
Our company is committed with its people, its clients and the environment. We are committed to satisfy our clients providing them with excel quality and services at competitive prices to be considered as one of the companies that give solutions to their needs. Furthermore we are a company that is committed to preserve the environment, in fact we have enroll to an environment program with UN, hence we got in and we will invite our suppliers to do it too. We consider that today no company can deny the environmental part and we have to be committed to it to succeed because if we are not updated, not only in technology but also in environmental trends, we can easily be out of the game.To sum up, at Xanik we want to be part of the companies that bring continuous improvement to the valve worldwide industry.
| Company: | Xanor de Mexico , SA de CV |
| Country: | 墨西哥 |