Newsletter

From Sinaloa to Mexico and the world

The year 1941 was perhaps the most intense of the Second World War. The Nazis begin to use the gas chamber in the Auschwitz death camp, at the same time that they initiate an offensive to take Moscow, the Soviet capital; but towards the end of the year a harsh winter began that was lethal for the German army. On the other front, Japan carries out the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor with which the United States enters fully into the conflict.

Although most of the agenda was warlike, in that year the first television commercial in history was broadcast: it was on July 1 at 1:29 p.m., during the baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies. and the advertiser was the Bulova watch brand that paid $ 9,000 for that space.

Dumbo and Citizen Kane, among other films, were released in theaters, while Jorge Luis Borges published one of his most iconic stories: The Garden of the Forking Paths.

That year, personalities such as tenor Plácido Domingo, musicians Neil Diamond and Bob Dylan, footballers Bobby Moore and Alex Ferguson were born, and Guillermo Ortíz Mayagoitia, former Minister of the Supreme Court, actor Rafael Inclán and singer César Costa were born in Mexico.

In our country, the six-year term of Manuel Ávila Camacho was starting and the National Union of Education Workers was about to be created. On the radio it sounded Kiss Me a lot and in theaters it opens When the children leave.

While all this turmoil was happening in Mexico and the world, in Sinaloa, Enrique Coppel Tamayo decided to cross borders after two years of success with his El Regalo store in Mazatlán and opened another store with the same name in Culiacán. In these stores, which sell products brought from the United States and Mexico City, they begin to offer purchases on credit and that is where the Coppel business model was born.

Currently, the company has more than 1,600 stores throughout the country, as well as in Argentina, where it employs about 113,000 people.

Thus, Coppel reaches 80 years celebrating Mexico, telling stories like that of Salvador, a teacher from Querétaro who during the COVID-19 pandemic got into his truck, traveled hundreds of kilometers and turned the street into a classroom; or that of Bibi Wetzel, a 15-year-old gymnast girl who lives with Down Syndrome and hypotonia and has a chest full of medals and also that of Abigail, who after a difficult childhood now has an award-winning restaurant in Oaxaca where she preserves the Zapotec culinary traditions.

THE ORIGINS

Both in Mexico and in the world, the Second World War generated important economic effects, so that during the first years of El Regalo stores, credit was an important tool for consumers to buy various products, which allowed the Growth of the company.

Six years after the opening of the small local in Culiacán where office supplies, Christmas trees, bicycles, lockable wardrobes were sold (hence the origin of its logo), and transferring the Mazatlán store, El Regalo moves to a larger place on Ángel Flores street, very close to the Cathedral and the Historic Center square. That same year (1947) Coppel Tamayo married Yolanda Luken Aguilar, with whom he would have seven children throughout their marriage: Enrique, Yolanda, Rubén, Alberto, Mónica, José and Agustín.

Remington office equipment, Philco radios, Haste and Steelco watches were available in stores by 1947, and everything could be purchased with a 12-month credit, including furniture and bicycles.

Photo: Special

In those years, when the business began to grow, Enrique Coppel Tamayo also learned to know the market and analyze the competition to define his business: to address the popular classes with very few possibilities to buy cash, but with the ability to pay, if customers recognize that they can pay in installments.

In 1956, a temporary remodel due to leaks ended in the opening of the second store in Culiacán, which was innovative for a furniture store, since it had two stores relatively close together and both sold something never seen before. With this expansion, Comercial Coppel, SA was born

By 1961, along with the growth of Culiacán, Coppel opened its third branch and, six years later, the company acquired two closed vans to make the first free home deliveries in the city.

At the end of the sixties, one more branch had been built from scratch and the purchase of the three stores of the Mayco de Culiacán company had been completed. Televisions are already sold in the sideboards of all the branches and, for their operations, they have one of the first 350 computers in Mexico.

In administrative matters, Enrique Coppel Luken joins the company and develops and implements a training system for employees. Back then they had confirmed that the majority of low-income people were punctual in their payments and preferred to return the product if they could not pay it.

THE EXPANSION

The seventies and eighties represented the departure of Culiacán for Coppel Tamayo and its chain of stores; other cities in Sinaloa, as well as in Sonora, represented the headquarters of the beginning of the expansion throughout the country.

In 1985, at the age of 63, Enrique Coppel Tamayo inherited the company to his children; already at that time, Coppel had 15 branches, the last one opened in Los Mochis. That year closed with the opening of branch 16 in downtown Hermosillo, Sonora, with Enrique Coppel Luken as CEO.

At the end of the eighties there are already 23 stores, all still in the northwest of the country. In 1992 they arrived in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and, when they added 45 branches, there is also a presence in Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí, Colima and Michoacán.

The main challenge is to end the 20th century with 100 stores open, a goal that was met in 1999 when the ribbon for the Centro Max store in León, Guanajuato was cut. Previously, there were branches in Guerrero, Zacatecas, Querétaro, Baja California, Tamaulipas, Puebla and in the city of Toluca, State of Mexico … and everything is ready for the conquest of Mexico City.

This step was taken in 2002, thanks to the acquisition of the Canadian shoe store chain, with 149 stores, which are remodeled and plans begin to open at least 40 new branches. At that time, Coppel covers practically the entire country, since there are stores from Tijuana to Chetumal, and a year after its arrival in Mexico City there were already 15 stores.

The first years of the millennium also represented the diversification of operations, since in 2004 Coppel constituted a Trust in order to grant microloans to its clients, at the same time that it already has 400 open stores -between Coppel stores and Coppel Canada shoe stores-, for What is necessary is the expansion of the regional wineries and the construction of a second one, in Mexico City.

Photo: Special

TODAY

Sixty-four years after the opening of the El Regalo store In Culiacán, in 2005 Coppel had (among shoe stores and stores) 28,000 workers and a desire to grow that would not stop. A few years later, 93 stores were added and Afore Coppel was born, in terms of business diversification, while BanCoppel did so in 2007 with seven branches, five in Culiacán and two in Mexico City.

In 2008, Agustín Coppel Luken assumed the position of CEO and Coppel began operations in Argentina. Then, in that same year, on August 24, Enrique Coppel Tamayo, creator of the company, passed away.

Seven years later, the acquisition of Viana, which had 51 stores, was completed, which represented another step in its expansion.

Currently, half of Coppel stores are located in communities with fewer than 300,000 inhabitants. 957 of its branches are full format (that is, they offer all products and services), 506 are shoe stores, 117 are compact format and there are 10 Fashion Market stores. This without counting the 24 stores in Argentina, the warehouses and offices in China and the distribution center in the United States.

In addition to the stores, there are 1,223 BanCoppel branches and more than 3,000 Abore Coppel service modules. The company’s fleet consists of 519 primary and 1,370 secondary fleet vehicles. its online store It is among the top 10 online sales places in Mexico. The company has more than 3,000 registered suppliers, 63% of them Mexican companies.

Not bad for just 80 years of history.

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending