Very. Early. Morning. Today we were up extra early to visit
the final companies: Hela, Centauros, y Bosques de Mauco.
We first drove to Hela, a company that manufactures brushes.
The man giving us the tour only spoke Spanish, but Valeria was able to
translate for us. I was surprised initially that so much of the brush
manufacturing process was done by hand. I had expected it to be almost entirely
done by machines. We were first shown the area where they produce the wire
brushes. One type was simply single-strand wires, while the other was
multi-wire clusters twisted together. We then moved on to the soft bristle
brushes. We were told that there are two types: natural and synthetic fiber
brushes. The natural ones are made from pig hair, which is more expensive. When
I asked the owner if they were planning on becoming more machine-operated, he
replied that they were definitely interested in becoming more technologically
advanced in order to reduce their labor costs.
After Hela, we moved on to Centauro, a food processing and
canning company. We entered the factory and could immediately smell tomatoes
and onions, which was very taunting given that it was lunchtime. Tomatoes are
Centauro’s primary product, but are moving quickly into the onion preparation
business as well. We were told that onions would be especially profitable for
the company since onions take a lot of time and energy to prepare, so pre-peeled
and chopped onions would likely sell well. I also found it interesting how much
of an effect the weather plays on the success of the company. The owner even
mentioned to us that they were counting on rain this Saturday for the success
of this season’s peach crop. I can’t imagine the weather deciding not just what
I will wear the next day, but the fate of my business. I really enjoyed this
visit because the people all seemed very passionate about the company. It was
also interesting because I learned some of the mechanical processes used to
make food. For example, I originally thought that pressure would be used to
make tomato paste, but instead learned that the crushed tomatoes are boiled to
remove the juice.
We then stopped at an empanadaria to get lunch. Later we
made our final company visit to Bosques del Mauco, a mushroom producing
company. We first saw the place where they create the compost to assist in the
mushroom growth. They combine straw, horse manure, and chicken manure in
specific proportions to make the soil. Then we moved on to the actual room
where the mushrooms are grown. They are grown in the dark on trays that are
stacked on top of one another. I thought it was interesting that the mushrooms
are all picked by hand, since that must be more costly. However we were told
that this process is necessary because only mushrooms of specific sizes are
picked at a time. Also, this extra price paid for labor is not a big deal
because mushroom growing is a very cheap business to run, and profits are high.
Since they are grown indoors weather conditions do not apply, and packaging is
very simple and cheap as well. This company visit really made me think about
the money necessary to run a business. In the future, I will probably be more
conscious about the potential effect of weather on my business success, as well
as the likelihood of making a profit.
Altogether the company visits were very informative, and I
am happy to have had the opportunity to see the production side of a company.
Tomorrow is our “spa day” which I know we are all looking forward to. Adios!
No comments:
Post a Comment