Voices from the city

Marc Chassinat, Entrepreneur

Name: Marc Chassinat
Position: Founder and General Manager, Toda la Prensa SA de CV
Years in Mexico: 33
Website: www.todalaprensa.com

Marc Chassinat sits behind his command center desk in Toda La Prensa’s office in Mexico City’s Escandón neighborhood, effortlessly slipping between Spanish, French, and English as he negotiates the day’s work with his staff and suppliers. The level of activity is evidence of the company’s success, but surviving more than three decades of doing business in Mexico has required managing through volatile times.

Chassinat came to Mexico from France thirty-four years ago to work for a French publishing company, but soon launched his own enterprise, a delivery service. Business grew quickly, and he began delivering credit cards for the banking giant Banamex, and commemorative gold and silver items for the Franklin Mint. The Mexican economy fell into crisis in 1981-82, however, and the dollar/peso exchange rate went from 22 to 150 over the course of one year. Banamex was nationalized and forced to use a government delivery service; the Franklin Mint could no longer afford to sell in Mexico and closed its operations.

“Within six months, we came down from fifty messengers and three or four thousand deliveries per day to six messengers and just a couple hundred deliveries per day,” says Chassinat. The shift forced the company to search for new clients, and Chassinat pitched his delivery services to Mexico’s two largest distributors of foreign periodicals. When the companies turned him down, he decided to import and distribute the publications himself, thus giving birth to the Toda la Prensa periodical business and a related P.O. Box business for foreigners in Mexico.

“[Despite the crisis] I had a feeling that there was a market for the service I was creating… and I could see the commercial results immediately. We had filing cabinets with rows of hanging folders, and by the end of that first month, two rows were filled with new clients; six months later, the whole cabinet was filled.”

Success bred confidence, which generated new ideas and new businesses. Among Chassinat’s ventures in the 1980s and 1990s were a chain of Mexico City-based newsstands called La Casa de la Prensa; a service that delivered late arriving baggage from the airport to airline customers’ hotels or homes; and a Lacoste shop in the Zona Rosa (Pink Zone) neighborhood.

Aggressive expansion, he says, was one of his biggest mistakes; both the baggage service and the Lacoste store faltered. By early 2000, he decided to focus on his core businesses, periodical distribution and the P.O. Boxes. “Administration is simpler, control is simpler,” he says.

Like all businesspeople, Chassinat had streamlined expenses and prepared Toda la Prensa to weather the economic crisis that began in 2008.  He’s also reacted to the decline in the demand for print media by developing new markets, this time by delivering electronic print-on-demand versions of daily newspapers to Mexican hotels. He’s also targeting foreign businesspeople and baby boomers living in Mexico City and other communities in the country, who still enjoy reading their favorite publications in print rather than online.

Marc Chassinat says Mexico’s modernization and large consumer market make it attractive for entrepreneurs. “The exchange rate is [very attractive], land is not that expensive and operations are not that expensive.”

Marc’s advice for business success in Mexico:

Learn Spanish
“It’s difficult to create good communication if you don’t understand the subtleties that your employees, clients, and suppliers are using when they speak with you. Lean the language, and learn it well.”

Cultivate personal relationships
“You have to meet people; you have to create some degree of sympathy between you and the people around you, especially your brazos derechos (“right hands”)your most trusted staff.”

Innovate in times of crisis
“During a crisis, you’re often faced with a choice: either you close down the business, or you find a new idea to make it grow on a sounder basis.”

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Author: Margot Lee Shetterly

Author Bio: Margot Lee Shetterly is an entrepreneur, writer and textile fanatic living with her husband and two dogs in Valle de Bravo, Mexico. Most of her time is consumed by her businesses; when she can find a spare moment, she knits.

Image Credit: Shauna Leff

Photographer Bio: Shauna Leff is a multimedia producer, photographer, video editor, media consultant and content developer. She works on numerous projects in both Mexico and the US. She currently resides in Mexico City.

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