Company Overview.
José Antonio Cox Pérez , (1960).
Founder and CEO of Cox & Compañía S.A. tells us how it all started:
"My first work experiences began early in life at the Santiago Stock Exchange, between 1979 and 1989, where I felt the adrenaline that the opening bell triggered, the yelling and extremely stimulating sensation of fast-acting buying and selling on the trading floor. It isn’t done this way anymore, but it shaped me and created a very special capacity of analysis and business conduct that, to a certain extent, has extended to my own life."
This naturally evolved towards the international trading of agricultural products. The first activity was to purchase and import soya for the food and animal feed industries:
"I saw opportunities in our neighboring countries, namely Paraguay and Bolivia. I took a careful look at their markets and established excellent connections, which led me to create Cox Trading in 1984.
In Bolivia the volume of bilateral trade was smaller so there was a distinct opportunity there. We worked intensely to develop an institutional framework for this relationship by forming the Chile-Bolivia Chamber of Commerce, which I founded and was also its first chairperson.”
And he shares a noteworthy anecdote on how this all came to be:
“We were interested in importing oil from Bolivia in the mid 90s, within the framework of the Latin America Association for Integration (ALADI), which establishes quotas and concessions for certain countries such as Bolivia. In this particular case, for importing oil, this meant that we would have to face unfair competition and legal proceedings surrounding tariffs and trade with Chile’s Customs services. We were accused of breaking local trade laws regarding price bands that clearly had a protectionist purpose.
“The solution appeared where we least expected it: the regional head of Customs justified his decision against us arguing due obedience to its national director. This set a precedent with clear human rights implications. A law professor who specializes in precedent case law saw this and referred to it in his amicus curiae. This became a very complex issue for the Chilean state. Finally, we filed an appeal before the dispute settlement body of the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI), which eventually ruled in our favor.”
José Antonio Cox affirms his philosophy after this ruling:
“Since then we’ve gone on to develop a business strategy based on a vision of inclusion and integration, creating networks and serving people and communities.”
“During the second half of the 90s, our company held a solid position in the commodities market and became the country’s major importers of cane sugar. In 2002 we advocated for changes to the sugar law, which led to the gradual elimination of price bands and allowed us to offer this product at a market price that benefited the entire population,” Cox explains. “Massive trade meant greater volumes but lower profits. We decided to transform the company and now as Cox & Compañía S.A., a limited liability company structured as such, we took a step forward and decided to introduce a series of innovations.”
This newly vitalized company viewed this process of differentiation as a step towards the development of new healthy foods products. New products were developed, namely low sodium salt, no trans fat shortening and Omega-3 oils.
As José Antonio Cox explains:
“We continued to carry out our main activity, which is importing sugar, and it is still a major part of our business. The logistics capacity we have developed has received market recognition and our clients are grateful for it. We have also launched new products such as our No-Na sodium-free salt in association with Laboratorio Chile, and we will also soon be launching enriched Omega-3 oils and low-calorie sweeteners with light sugar.”
Cox & Compañía S.A. earnings are growing on average 30% per year and have increased from US $30 million in 2008 to US $41 million in 2009 and US $53 million in 2010, and it is estimated that they will reach approximately US $68 million in 2011. We also expect that our new product lines will report even greater earnings, which will lead to more development and innovation.
Finally, Cox lays emphasis on his vision of a businessman committed to social responsibility: “I believe that we as a company are contributing toward this common good through health and nutrition. This has given us optimism and hope for the future.”