Mickey partners with Mexican trailer builder

Aug. 1, 2005
Mickey Truck Bodies has entered into a sales and marketing partnership with Carrocerias Altamirano, a body and over-the-road trailer manufacturer in Mexico,

Mickey Truck Bodies has entered into a sales and marketing partnership with Carrocerias Altamirano, a body and over-the-road trailer manufacturer in Mexico, to sell Mickey beverage bodies in Mexico. Altamirano, headquartered in Mexico City, will assemble body kits from Mickey for sale and distribution to the beverage industry throughout Mexico.

“It's a family-owned-and-operated business that is over 50 years old, and the three brothers that run the business have a very hands-on management style,” says Dean Sink, Mickey president.

“The Mexican market is quite possibly a larger potential market in beverage right now than the United States because they are still using distribution methods that we were using 25 years ago,” says Sink. “They haven't gone to a 53-foot trailer with a liftgate on the rear. There are more convenience stores and street vendors in Mexico that have to deliver the product right to the vendors, so there is a large demand and need for side loader distribution equipment in Mexico.”

According to Sink, the Mickey bodies that will be marketed to Mexican beverage operators “are basically the same as what we are making for the US market, but with a little heavier design because the road system in Mexico is not up to the level it is here. Trucks in Mexico are allowed to handle heavier weights than what we can carry in the states, so the combination of the roads and the more lenient weight restrictions means we are going to design the units with a little extra middle.”

Mickey has taken “a much more aggressive leadership role” in developing the beverage distribution business in Mexico, starting with the appointment of Pedro Machado as global sales manager in January 2005. Based in Houston TX, Machado worked in the metals industry throughout Mexico before joining Mickey, and came to the company with an intimate knowledge of the Mexican body and trailer market. At Mickey, he is concentrating initially on business in Mexico, and will eventually reach out to Latin America, starting with Brazil and Venezuela. He was instrumental in setting up Mickey's partnership with Altamirano, along with Sink and Bill Brown, Mickey's vice-president-global sales.

Altamirano is headed by three brothers: Pedro Altamirano, general director; Gonzalo Altamirano, vice-president-sales; and Victor Altamirano, vice-president-manufacturing. Besides over-the road-trailers, Altamirano is an OEM of dry freight and refrigerated bodies.