Entrepreneurship in the salmon industry: Katherine Vio, owner of Mechas del Sur

Experience in international trade, talent and a business marketplace. The elements that gave life to a new supplier in Puerto Montt.

When the pandemic began in 2020, Katherine Vio had been working for several years at a shipping company in Puerto Montt. There, the engineer applied everything she knew about international trade, transportation and logistics; an experience that would soon help her to successfully face a new career path in her life.

"The effects of covid-19 soon made the global supply chain more complex, and of course that also complicated the place where I worked: I was laid off. I was laid off and asked myself what I could do, and then I remembered that I lived in a region with a powerful salmon industry," says Katherine.

This is how Mechas del Sur was born, a company that to this day provides supplies and boxes of products for protection in the salmon industry. Katherine is its legal representative and its star seller, overalls for operating personnel. "I have sold 300 disposable coveralls a month, sometimes 200, but never less than 150," she says.

Despite the high level of competition in this market, the entrepreneur says that over time her brand has not become a "ghost" supplier. "I knew that in addition to setting up a business, I had to guarantee sales first. That is why I participate in a bidding marketplace; today, digitalization and market opening are essential elements to make a match".

Mechas del Sur is one of the 30,000 suppliers of wherEX, a business platform for B2B purchases and quotations for all types of industries, which has 200 buyers. The portal also offers factoring, ordering and prompt payment through wherEX Pay, a technological solution with financing lines of up to US$ 120 million. "These types of solutions are key for SMEs; using wherEX Pay, for example, my company has grown 30% more thanks to the availability of money, capital that on several occasions has allowed me to close timely and promising deals", reveals the professional.

According to the Ministry of Economy, in the midst of the pandemic, Chile broke the record for the creation of companies and new businesses: 158,586 in 2020, 14.4% more than in 2019. This is the highest figure since records began in 2013.

Check the original article at mujeresymas.cl