Have you seen this one yet? I typed it up word for word last night so I could post it.
Here is the text of an article from International Living (Oct '98).
PISTONS AND PROFITS IN COSTA RICA
Ten minutes from downtown San Jose, we drove through open gates into a small group of tidy, single story warehouses and pulled up in front of the last one on the left; ThermalTec de Costa Rica, a company headed by Andy Mazzone, an IL subscriber and a champion of smart, long-term investment in Central America. It's not a glamorous shop... but it is the neatest, cleanest work area I've seen anywhere, and this is a business where shards of red hot steel fly through the air.
ThermalTec refurbishes old metal parts - parts from tractors, road making machinery, drills, you name it - and replaces the worn surfaces with new metals, often making the parts stronger than they were to begin with. That means they are back in use and don't quickly end up in a landfill or a roadside ditch (nor, mercifully, do the bigger machines they come from).
Not only is the business eco-friendly, but it has introduced a breakthrough level of efficiency. Say the machine a road crew is using to grate a surface before they pave it breaks because a part wears through. Before ThermalTec came to Costa Rica, the workers would order a new part from North America, and then wait two or three weeks to get it, often leaving the road impassable in the interim. Not any more. ThermalTec can work on a 24-hour turnaround. "My idea is to start with a basic business that's friendly to the country," says Mazzone. "That saves the business, saves the currency, and allows us to see the opportunity from the inside... I go into a place at a level where I can get the pulse of the country, and then I go get it."
Mazzone brought ThermalTec to Costa Rica from upstate New York two-and-a-half years ago. He says it would have cost him $750,000 to start the same business in the States. Here, he invested a fraction of that - closer to $100,000 up front - and today ThermalTec de Costa Rica is worth nearly $1 million... ten times the initial investment. Mazzone's operating expenses in Costa Rica are only a fraction of what they would be in the U.S.. Some of that savings comes in labor fees. An engineer up north would earn $70,000 - $80,000 a year. In Costa Rica, qualified locals make $10,000 - $12,000 for doing the same job.
"Americans are foolish to leave this alone" he argues. "Costa Rica is a perfect place to start off in Central America. It has a highly educated workforce, tremendous industrial potential, and perhaps most important, a stable, proven legal system."
Mazzone is already expanding. He's just gotten financial backing to open his shops all over Central America and the Caribbean. A partner in Panama owns the biggest heavy machinery repair shop in the country and Mazzone is busy financing mortgages for pre-fab houses in Belize, using local talent to write software programs for American companies, and looking for partners to help him open in San Jose a sophisticated auto repair shop.
"If I can find 50 Americans with the skill to come down here and work with us, we'll partner with them. We're providing an entree. We've got the momentum, the safety, the attorneys. We've already done the hardest work," he says.
"The businesses we're running are intended to be long term partners in the country. We've got to pull Costa Rica into the mainstream, and what's wrong with helping to do that? If you want to try something, if you've got a skill, and if you've got the guts, join us."
In San Jose, the weather is pleasant year round - in the mid 80's, the mountains are nearby, the beaches are within easy reach, and the cost of living is a fraction of what you'd pay in the States. Mazzone is in Costa Rica about one week a month and says he looks forward to spending even more time here in the years to come. "I'm finally going to have some of that adventure I couldn't as a corporate executive. Nothing I've done before has been as difficult, as challenging, or as rewarding."
- Jennifer Stevens
Contacts:
Andy Mazzone, President
ThermalTec Intl. Corp 68A Lamar
Street, West Babylon, NY 11704.
-- By the way, THRM does not finance any mortgages in Latin America. John Schmitz from PABN was visiting Andy Mazzone in Costa Rica when the editors from the magazine came down to write the interview. They talked to John Schmitz also and were confused when writing the article because they included PABN's operation as part of ThermalTec International. That part of the article was incorrect.
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