An in-depth conversation with RGV business leader Joaquin Spamer

3 months ago 108

MCALLEN, Texas – Logistics specialist Joaquin Spamer started his business in July 1992 by building a 22,000 square foot warehouse in the city of Hidalgo.

Back then the company was known as Century Forwarding Agency. Former McAllen Mayor Othal Brand helped Spamer get started.

The company is now called Commodities Integrated Logistics (CIL) and it has grown from 20,000 square feet of warehouse space to 1.2 million square feet.

“It’s been a long journey. We’ve been blessed. We were very blessed by the U.S., Mexico and Canada signing the NAFTA agreement. And of course, everything in the (Rio Grande) Valley kept on growing. And we were growing it,” Spamer said. “

“We mainly do agricultural products. We are the largest distributors of cotton from the U.S. into Mexico. And we handle about 40 percent of all cotton from Mexico to the rest of the world. And northbound we have a produce company. We service the supermarkets in the US. And that business has been growing as well.”

Spamer took a stroll down memory lane on a podcast with the Rio Grande Guardian. He told Guardian anchor Mark Hanna that running a successful business is always a challenge.

“There’s always a challenge. Always a challenge. And I’m very ambitious. I’m a deal junkie. I like to accomplish what I set my goals to be. I don’t work for money. I’ve work basically to accomplish everything that I want to accomplish. It is a lot of fun. It has not always been profitable. But it has always been fun.”

In addition to talking about the company he has painstakingly built up, Spamer spoke about economic development in the region. As the leader of the CEO Group, which comprises more than a dozen successful business men and women from across the Valley and Tamaulipas, Spamer has been advocating for radical change in the way the region markets itself abroad.

Here is a video recording of the podcast: