Pablo Rodriguez joined MachinePoint in 2012 and since 2014 is MachinePoint Engineering Director, the MachinePoint Group division that provides engineering services. Today he shares with us his vision of how engineering services can help companies and individuals progress in the globalized world on the road to industrial modernization.
What motivated you to take charge of this project?
The business of our company is the sale of industrial machinery in the packaging, plastic and beverage sectors. We have many requests from companies in emerging countries. By proximity North Africa and by language Latin America. I am of the belief that if a country wants to evolve and increase the standard of living of its population, it needs a transformation from a traditional agrarian structure to a modern agro industrial structure. The oil-producing countries have subsidized, for example, milk powder, tomato concentrate and many other products that have contributed to reducing livestock for milk, tomato production, etc. The wealth of the primary mining-oil-gas sector has neglected investment in other sectors such as agriculture and food processing. Investing in the development of these sectors on a local level will increase the wealth and employment of these regions, which will result in an improvement in the standard of living for the population.
From a humanitarian point of view, the death of 5000 people in the Mediterranean is unacceptable. Africa is bleeding out. Those who die in the boats are the strongest, are those who try to escape from misery. We have an obligation to do something about this.
MachinePoint’s engineering team wants to focus on helping enterprises in these countries in their modernization challenge.
Spain had a very large agro-industrial development thanks to the European Union. We went from subsistence agriculture to being the pantry of Europe for many products. Using our experience in Spain, we can help other countries to follow the same path to modernization taking into account certain differences.
What differences?
Spain processes a lot of fresh products that can be easily be exported such as: tomatoes, oranges … Europe, our partner, consumes large quantities of fresh products from Spain, and we have few post-harvest losses. Emerging countries do not have the European Common Market to count on and processing fresh products into long-term products will help them program their exports with more flexibility and reduce losses.
What advice would you like to share with your customers?
Firstly, I would advise them to stop importing and start producing locally. Algeria is 180 km from Spain. We can apply our experience there. We also have great experience in juices applicable to tropical countries.
In countries with good agricultural potential, processing raw products into processed products can be a profitable business and increase the region’s wealth at the same time.
Populations are growing and a strong local industry is needed. MachinePoint helps entrepreneurs who are willing to invest in creating a food and beverage processing industry.
The fresh product can be transformed into processed products that last longer, creating more value and reducing waste. Fruit and vegetables can be transformed into concentrate, for example, at the same time that the concentrate can be transformed into sauces and juices. The concentrate lasts several months unlike the fresh ones that are very seasonal.
Something very similar happens in the dairy industry, there are many entrepreneurs willing to enter the sector and invest locally.
MachinePoint helps them from designing the business idea to building the entire plant.
For companies to successfully export their products, their factories must follow international quality standards. MachinePoint helps build factories in emerging countries for accessible prices that follow all necessary regulations.
What is the difference between MachinePoint and other engineering companies?
MachinePoint Engineering prides itself on being an independent and neutral engineering company, not tied to any brand and without conflicts of interest. We choose solutions for our customers that involve different brands, to ensure that we choose the best technology at the best price. Unlike most engineering companies, MachinePoint Engineering specializes in Food and Beverage industries. Our financial, logistic and industrial experience also offers our clients financial, contractual, logistics, organizational, human resources, product and packaging advice; and, of course, project management and process engineering. If a company or investor lacks experience in building a factory or entering a new industry, hiring MachinePoint as an engineering firm is key to the company’s competitive advantage to ensure its success in the international market.
I want to highlight our independence since we do not belong to any manufacturer, we are free to choose. Many competitors cannot because they have to offer what their group manufactures. By representing their interests, customers can benefit from our commercial contracts for the purchase of machines. Therefore, we can offer our clients the solution according to their needs and budget.
As an example, our financial intermediation and marketing consultancy has been key to the creation of a new company in the south of Spain with two Tetra Pak filling lines packaging for third parties.
We have been engineering a factory in Southeast Asia with two production lines to fill Asian sauces in PET and glass. Today it gives work to a lot of local cooperatives and farmers. They export tons of processed chili and the wealth that is generated remains in their country. This sauce is exported to many countries in the world and the factory meets all international quality standards. It has been designed to convince the most demanding buyer.
Finally, I would like to point out that in the organization chart of an agro industrial production company there is no Engineering department. You cannot build a house without an independent builder’s architect or a factory without an engineering department. MachinePoint Engineering aims to be the customer’s engineering department.
