business

Partnership to help company expand

LA PRENSA

new frontiers: Papelera Istmeña officials plan to use revenue from its partnership with a Colombian firm to enter new markets. 975766

After two years of negotiations, the Panamanian company Papelera Istmeña confirmed yesterday the sale of 50 percent of its share to the Colombian firm Productos Familia. The transaction is now awaiting the approval of the Autoridad de Protección al Consumidor y Defensa de la Competencia.

Papelera Istmeña is "preparing to compete against international rivals," which have obtained a competitive advantage in the local market, a source from the Panamanian firm said.

Papelera Istmeña President Antonio Miró described the sale as "an alliance" that will allow the firm to explore new business opportunities and consolidate at a regional level.

Despite the fact that Papelera Ismeña has a 60 percent share of the toilet paper market in Panama, multi-national companies such as Kimberly-Clark and Scott have slowly started to compete locally.

"The new revenue will allow the company to invest in new technology to remain competitive," a source from Papelera Istmeña said.

Miró said that the Panamanian paper company is looking at expanding internationally and wants to begin exporting its products throughout Central America and the Caribbean. The partnership with Productos Familia is expected to help those expansion plans as the company already does a large amount of regional business.

"We want to go hand-in-hand with Productos Familia to develop new markets," Miró said.

He added that it will be difficult for the company to break into markets in other countries, especially since many of them have already been targeted by larger corporations. But the president remained confident that his company can be competitive and "take a bite out of the cake."