Ing. Omar David Rodríguez Guerrero
Presidente, E.P.I.M.S.A.
Monterrey, México

My name is Omar David Rodríguez Guerrero. I am an electrical and communications engineer. I studied at the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Moneterrey. From there the business that my family and I created was born and it is called E.P.I.M.S.A. which means Electrónica Profesional Integral de Monterrey, Sociedad Anónima. And our company, the purpose of our company is to be able to provide medical equipment, used or rebuilt, economically accessible to doctors so that majority of them can acquire them and that these in turn can offer better service with good diagnostic equipment to the patients. We can offer them this service of being able to equip their offices so that they can do all of this and be able to have appropriate diagnostics and earn more in their profession and to be able to do this within a group of friends or doctors that they normally have and then they won't have to always be sending them to large institutions, large hospitals that are not accessible to some doctors, excuse me, for some patients.

The equipment that we get mainly come from the United States, we buy them used or rebuilt, from different hospitals, from different private doctors, or from other distributors that sell used medical equipment at various places. We buy this type of equipment directly, always at the cash price, sometimes we have credit with a few people that sell equipment, (for example) in the city of Dallas. We try to ship this equipment, verify their condition, ship them to the border of Mexico with the United States, specifically McAllen, we undertake their importation, they arrive in the city of Monterrey, the equipment is checked out, rebuilt, painted, everything that is necessary to put them in optimal condition and later these equipments are sold directly to the doctors, providing them with a guarantee and a reasonable price. This price, generally, is about 50% or less then what it would cost for a new one, and the used one will give them the same service as the new one, and the average life of this type of equipment is around 5 years which is enough time to amortize the cost of the equipment.

The most difficult part of our business is in collection, it seems like a lie, but really the part that is a little more difficult is in collection for the equipment. Currently we are trying to get different types of financing through credit institutions and capital leasings. Some type of guarantee, from direct loans from the company or from other third parties so that the doctors can pay for this equipment monthly, through payments, with an extremely small down payment and the rest in two or three years. This allows them to amortize the value of the equipment without any problem, it means that the equipment from the moment that it is bought doesn't really become and expense but rather an investment that has been made in dollars and that at the end of two years its decrease..., its depreciation will be about 20%, but that will have been paid for automatically through the office visits. That is to say that they never had to invest money in the equipment and the day that they want to sell it, well the money is in the equipment and you can buy other bigger one.

We try to have a training program, basically for the associates, for the guys that work here. We have had courses in win-win programs where we have been able to establish the importance of being honest with the doctors, truthful, and above all to always tell the truth about the equipment, the condition of the equipment, about (delivery) time, about anything about the equipment and to try to never tell a lie or deceive them with something that isn't right, that is we try to always explain it to them, if it is a difficult situation, simply explain it to them, nothing will happen, we always try to do this.

Our experience in buying the equipment in the United States has been good most of the time. We have found people who are very honest and very good. But we have also found that at times we thought that the Americans would have been more professional in their business dealings and in practice the result has been the opposite. The delivery times have been more prolonged, the agreements that are reached are less professional, there are more demands, some that have created more problems and disputes when they promise to send something that is in excellent condition and when we receive it the thing doesn't work. It isn't easy, but this doesn't represent the majority but rather we are saying that everywhere in business there are honest and dishonest people. But generally the majority we have met have been very good people, and they have helped us. Something that the Americans like, that would be good to comment on, is that the Mexican..., sometimes the Americans have the idea that the Mexicans don't have any money and we have come in contact with Americans that have the idea a Mexican is a guy bent over with his sombrero. We have gone with money in hand with thousands of dollars to buy, 50, 40, 60 thousand dollars in hand and they are surprised because they say that their best business is with us. (They like it) because it helps them a little, with their taxes, they don't have problems with a guarantee because we automatically take on all of this and they get their money quickly without any collection problems, without any problem with credit and they can make good profits, very good. I believe that we can generate strong profits in the area of medical equipment in the United States because the equipment that they don't use in two or three years, that is still in excellent condition, they only want to sell them for tax purposes. We can use them for another 10 years without any problem. And it is not that they don't want this used equipment because it doesn't work, it is simply because regulations in the United States require it. So, we buy this equipment at economical prices in many cases, not always, and we put them within reach of those persons who want them at an economical price for which they can get them.