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Q&A: South Florida Tissue Paper
AMBITIOUS MIAMI COMPANY NEEDS MORE POWER TO DRIVE 25% GROWTH
“We are working with Florida Power Line to restructure the electrical plans of the city,” says Juan Corzo Jr., vice president of South Florida Tissue Paper. The reason – to drive planned major expansions with a first venture into the retail industry, and extend its reach into international markets with South Florida Tissue Paper Company Dominican Republic (Inpaca). Key growth trends are expected in AfH, private label and higher quality grades. Juan Corzo Jr. spoke to Focus Report. We are working with FPL (Florida Power Line) to restructure the electrical plans of the city to accommodate us with more power. This will allow to start a footprint in the retail industry for towel and tissue.”
Q5: What efforts are you making in terms of environmentally-friendly products and production?
Major expansions: vice-president Juan Corzo Jr (left), and his father and company president, Juan Corzo Sr, next to their new and still-under-construction production line
Q1: What has been your growth strategy over the past few years? “Since 2017 we have grown an additional 25%. This is mostly due to the implementation of new automation equipment that has helped us become more efficient in our production, which in turn has helped us better service the increased demand we have been receiving. This equipment includes case packers, automatic plasticisers and stretch wraps. We have also expanded into two additional locations within our town of 20,000sq ft each, allowing us to make modifications and upgrades in our equipment to satisfy the new trends in proprietary products that are made for private label. Such products include specific core sizes, specific widths, coreless items, and special grades in tissue and towel. Our presence in the US market remains nation-wide, attending all 50 states with 18% in private label.”
Q2: How do you plan to continue this growth in 2020? “We plan on growing our line of products. We are also venturing into new sectors of the tissue and towel industry that include retail products and proprietary products that few manufactures are able to produce.
There is a lot of opportunity for us in these sectors as we are seeing a strong increase in demand for them.”
Q3: What growth do you expect to see generally in the American tissue market? “We see the most growth in the AfH industry. Proprietary products with new specifications are growing, as well as new grades of tissue and towel, private label and higher quality grades of paper. We are also in a state with rapid population growth which calls for more demand. We see tourism increasing every year as well, not only in South Florida but within the entire State.”
Q4: Do you plan to invest in new machinery, and if so, what is driving that demand? “We are going through a major project on a new line that will allow us to venture into the retail industry for the first time in our company. This will be our biggest and most modern line up to date and we will add an additional 4,000 - 5,000 tonnes per year thanks to this line. We are currently in the process of installing this new line and the biggest challenge we are facing is in adding additional electrical power to our building.
“The demand for environmentalfriendly products continues to grow and we have grown and adjusted to it. We have renovated our equipment to go from gasoperated to electrical, using paper grades that have a percentage in post-consumer use, implemented water based none toxic glues and continued recycling all of our waste. We see the tissue and towel industry shifting into plastic-free packaging to avoid using less plastic in wrapping of finished goods. And we are seeing major accounts demanding more paper packaging to eliminate plastic wrapping.”
Q6: What are the key challenges you face, and how are you dealing with them? “A major challenge we have been facing is with hiring and training staff. It has become very difficult to hire and maintain production staff. Our strategy to combat this challenge has been to continue upgrading our equipment to more modern and automatic equipment.”
Q7: And the key opportunities for you? “Our main focus right now in growing in the US market with the new line that we will be launching this year for the retail industry. We will also continue to focus our attention on growing in special demands in the proprietary market. This is a big opportunity for us as there are only a few manufacturers that are able to produce these products.” Tissue World Magazine | Focus Report 2020
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