What is your vision for GTM as the new CEO?

In the last few years, we increased our footprint dramatically; we now have a presence in 11 countries in both industrial and specialty chemicals. For years we have been merging companies of very different cultures in different places, while we also expanded our portfolio in many segments. Our vision is to become the partner of choice for our customers, our principals and our employees. We are building engaged teams that will be strongly supported by processes and systems. Moreover, we are focused on building a closer relationship with our principals, based on constant feedback. The world is changing and demanding new chemistry and we will help to make this happen.

Latin America’s economies are not doing well. How is GTM adapting to this?

The scenario was already very challenging last year and at the beginning of 2020. With Covid-19, it has become extremely challenging. 2020 will be a tough year, but we believe that our way of operating, being agile, caring for our customers and keeping a constant dialogue with our principals, will allow us to grow significantly at the bottom line. We are restructuring our organization to become more efficient and disciplined, without losing the necessary flexibility and agility.

Which countries and sectors are driving growth for GTM at the moment?

Before Covid-19, we enjoyed reasonable growth in most of the countries, especially in Brazil, Mexico and Central America. After Covid-19, the Andean Region markets, where oil and gas is a significant component, became more challenging due to the extremely low price of crude oil. In spite of all these problems, our overall Latin America results between January and April were significantly better than in 2019. A lot of that has to do with some past investments that are maturing now, and with recent changes to our operations.

What is GTM’s current focus on specialty markets?

Year by year, GTM has been evolving in specialties, but not fast enough. Recently, we changed several aspects of our business, from changing our employees’ compensation to measuring the level of adoption of new products in a very strict manner. We constantly think about how to connect our traditional customers to new chemistry that will improve their business too. This is a significant mindset change.

Do you expect to see more consolidation in the Latin American chemical distribution business?

Consolidation is a global trend in almost every market and chemical distribution is not different. In Latin America consolidation is not simple, as it is a market with significant volatility across the board and some players may be reluctant to participate in it. As I always like to say, GTM is not a global company – GTM is a Latin American company. We are used to volatility and we enjoy the challenges of our region. We believe that we are in a unique position to consolidate smaller competitors, especially in the Covid-19 scenario that has affected the cash flow of some of them.