The GCC culture is based heavily on teamwork, with employees involved in the decision-making process.

Premier Business Partners:

Midwest Construction

In an increasingly globalized marketplace, cement producer Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) and its U.S. division are gaining ground. The company’s agility and market insight has enabled it to develop innovative products while vertically integrating throughout the world.

Enrique Escalante, president of the U.S. division of the company, says GCC is “very serious” about developing new products for the construction industry. With a strong focus on R&D, the company seeks to turn out specialty products.

“We want to serve the customers with these niche products that some of our competitors aren’t able to supply,” Escalante says.

“In order to do that, we created an R&D organization, both in Switzerland and Chihuahua, [Mexico], that works closely with our sales staff, to develop those new products,” he adds.

For example, GCC is in the process of launching two products it has been developing for years. One is Microsilex, a material the company developed to strengthen concrete, which can be used in place of silica fumes in the creation of concrete. GCC also created Virsabind, a material that works as an anti-stripping agent for asphalt paving, substituting the use of lime. Vertical Growth

GCC of America began acquiring ready-mix concrete companies two years ago, “in order to integrate our cement products and increase the value chain of what we do here in the United States,” Escalante says. “In 2006, we acquired Consolidated Ready Mix Continent Concrete and Central Ready Mix. In 2008 we acquired Alliance Concrete. We are now present with concrete in five states.”

This integration has been critical for the company, especially recently. GCC opened a cement plant in Pueblo, Colo., just as the region’s economy was declining. Once it saw there was less demand for its product, it acted quickly. “We have been very fast and agile in developing several markets outside of Colorado so we can disperse the production of the plant,” Escalante says. “It was a challenge for us – we didn’t expect the economy to be going in that direction so fast.”

Within a “record time” of three months, GCC acquired several ready-mix and cement distribution companies in several regions to use its product. “We’re a very flexible and agile company,” Escalante says. “Communication is very fast. Every month from the level of our chairman to our mid-management, we have meetings where everybody’s informed in teams that can act very fast and can decide very quickly on actions that set us apart.”

The GCC Way of Life
The GCC culture is based heavily on teamwork, with employees involved in the decision-making process. “In order to do that, we work on a high-performance system in which all of our employees are organized in different teams, through different levels,” Escalante explains. “They are empowered and accountable for making decisions at that level. Those teams work to improve the key results of those specific teams, which gives them a lot of accountability and ownership because they are given the power to decide.”

Escalante says the atmosphere at GCC is “exciting” due to the constant influx of new companies coming on board.

“We are growing very rapidly through these acquisitions and new projects,” he says. “One of the interesting things is, as we acquire these companies, each one has its own identity and own unique culture. We’re trying to integrate them in the GCC culture as fast as possible. “To do this, we have a PMI (post-merger integration) plan that helps us standardize and implement best practices across units.”

Escalante sees continued growth on GCC’s horizon. “I think that GCC wants to continue to expand and continue vertical integration,” he says. “We want to find new regions where we can start doing business.

“This could mean a different country; this could mean a different continent. We are actively looking for opportunities to strengthen our business today through consolidation of regions and to expand our business by growing in new countries.”