Founded in 1906 as a furniture maker and retail enterprise known as Salinas y Rocha S.A., Grupo Salinas S.A. de C.V. is today one of Mexico’s biggest and most dynamic conglomerates with consolidated sales expected to surpass $ 10 billion this year across the various wholly-owned and publicly-traded subsidiaries in its portfolio while employing over 80,000 people. Overall, the one responsible for the outstanding growth and diversification of the conglomerate is its sole shareholder and Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego. In fact, taking over the publicly-traded star of the conglomerate known as Grupo Elektra S.A. de C.V. after finishing his MBA at Tulane University in 1987, Ricardo Salinas Pliego expanded the chain from 54 stores back then to more than 1,000 now while making around $ 7 billion a year in sales through innovation and the shrewd introduction of credit to lower socioeconomic segments of the market previously ignored by Mexican entrepreneurs. Today, Grupo Elektra holds the lion’s share of the market in Mexico for the sale of home appliances, consumer electronics, computers, furniture and motorcycles. In addition, thanks to the introduction of payment plans in the form of installment sales to low and middle income shoppers in Mexico back in the late 1980s when Ricardo Salinas Pliego first took over managing control from his father Hugo Salinas Price, the credit bureau in Mexico relies on input from his Grupo Elektra’s chain of stores to assess the credit score of millions of credit seekers nationwide including homebuyers. On the other hand, this flourishing privately-held conglomerate now includes in addition to Grupo Elektra, Mexico’s second biggest broadcaster renamed recently as Azteca S.A.B. de C.V., a commercial bank, a stock broker-dealer, an insurance company, a pension fund management business, a motorcycle manufacturing enterprise, a wireless telecom services provider, a short-term credit company and even a newly established broadcaster targeting people of Hispanic origin here in America known as Azteca America Corporation.
Moreover, Grupo Salinas’ broadcaster Azteca has gone from having no market share in Mexico back in 1993 to 20% of the market now while making over $ 1 billion a year in sales and consequently, having stolen market share from the biggest media enterprise across the whole Spanish-speaking world known as Grupo Televisa S.A.B. Indeed, this is an outstanding feat itself and Grupo Salinas continues accelerating its expansion such as having a broadcaster in the US catering to Spanish speakers countrywide and right at the moment exploring the possibility of teaming up with Telefónica’s unit in Mexico in order to win ground in the market for wireless telecom services currently dominated by Mexican goliath América Móvil S.A.B de C.V. which is the crown-jewel of Mexico’s Carlos Slim Helú. Accordingly, although Grupo Salinas’ wireless telecom unit known as Iusacell S.A. de C.V. only has 5% of the market today reporting around $ 1 billion a year in revenue while Telefónica’s unit has 15% and thus comprising 20% of the market in Mexico between the two of them, América Móvil’s units for both wireline and wireless telecom services in Mexico are projected to be unfavorably affected by antitrust legislation presently being studied by the administration of the incumbent President of the nation Enrique Peña Nieto. In fact, Carlos Slim Helú won the auction to buy a protected Mexican telecom services monopoly back in the early 1990s and this accomplishment alone is what propelled him forward to place him where he is right now being the richest person in the world.
To conclude, I think Grupo Salinas is a force in Mexico to be reckoned with now while its sole shareholder Ricardo Salinas Pliego is the one responsible for it. The conglomerate has won ground in the past from monopolistic players in Mexico and it seems its appetite for doing it has not ended. Furthermore, Mexico has a vibrant economy nowadays thanks to steps its leaders implemented such as diversifying the sources of income the country relies on. Likewise, the strategy for expansion of Grupo Salinas will allow the conglomerate to keep on realizing strong results in the future.