Member Profile
Washington Box BY VIRGINIA HUMPHREY
COMPANY: Washington Box ESTABLISHED: April 1998 JOINED AICC: April 1999 PHONE: +52 81-1184-8231 WEBSITE: wabox.mx LOCATIONS: Monterrey, Mexico OWNERS: Humberto Trevino
H
umberto Trevino, president of Washington Box, a sheet plant in the industrial city of Monterrey, Mexico, had been under COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders for 13 days at the time of this writing. It was fitting in terms of timing, because it was during a time of turmoil 25 years ago that Trevino started in the paper industry and, soon after, his business.
From Banking to Boxes The boxmaking business was not a venture he ever imagined undertaking. Trevino worked in his family’s thriving financial services business straight out of college. His path had been laid out for him, and he had no intention of straying from it. But fate saw a different future for him. On December 20, 1995, a day Trevino remembers well, newly inaugurated Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo announced the Mexican central bank’s devaluation of the peso. Soon after, the
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BOXSCORE May/June 2020
Mexican economy experienced 52% inflation, and several large Mexican banks collapsed amid widespread mortgage defaults. In short, it was not a good time to be in the financial services business. Trevino soon found himself looking for a new job in the middle of a recession. “In some places, they told me I was overqualified, and in others, there were hundreds of applications for one seat. It was like a nightmare,” Trevino says. Finally, his perseverance paid off, and he was offered a position with General Electric. The job came with perks, including managing the company’s skybox at Texas Stadium, home of Trevino’s beloved Dallas Cowboys. But the entrepreneurial blood ran strong through Trevino’s veins, as he had also been considering starting his own business. “I had the opportunity to be a very important executive with a large company, or I could start making boxes,” Trevino says. “I chose to make boxes.”
Humble Beginnings With just US$700 in capital, Trevino got to work. His first customer was Soriana, a popular Mexican grocery and department store chain. They needed a box that wasn’t available in Mexico, but in such a low quantity that importing them from the United States was not cost-effective. Trevino told them what would become the company’s motto: “We can make it.” Soriana approved the prototype, and after some tough negotiation with three of the Soriana sharks, Trevino had his first order for 700 custom-made boxes to be delivered each month. He just needed someone to help him make his boxes and a place in which to do it. Trevino signed a lease on a tiny workspace—about the size of a small bedroom—and built some tables and bought a few knives, a lot of glue, and corrugated sheets. Then he hired a ragtag crew to work for him.
