The Road To Mexico, Expansion and Digital Innovation

Q: How has C&C Consulting Construction Group evolved since it launched operations?

A: We began operations in the city of Cali, Colombia, in 2002. The company’s original concept was the management of structural engineering projects. My academic background was in structural calculations, which allowed me to gain experience with steel structures. My family had worked previously in the metal mechanical industry. The company’s original name, Ingestructuras, is in reference to our focus on structural engineering. Over the years, the company managed to transition from pre-construction calculations to actual project development with steel structures and we began to diversify our portfolio. We soon began to provide construction services and civil engineering projects. For the company’s first eight years, we worked with Colombia´s public and private sectors. 

By 2009, when we had consolidated our company’s development, we began to work on remodeling a major football stadium that had to abide by FIFA standards. This project led us to search for suppliers of specialized materials and services with whom we could form strategic alliances. Soon after, we began to do business with suppliers all across Latin American, which is what eventually led us to Mexico. We formed a joint venture with a company from Guadalajara and by 2010, we had set up Ingestructuras Mexico. 

Over time, we got involved with technologies that contributed to our design process and applied BIM methodology. Soon after, we went from being a construction services company to establishing a group of subdivisions that could better manage a project’s lifespan, considering architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry factors. This is how C&C Consulting Construction Group was formed. Over time, we began to focus more on consulting and technology services through alliances with key international software developers in the sector, such as Autodesk, Bentley and Graphisoft. 

Today, we offer AR and laser scanning services, among other technical specialized options. We promote the use of lean construction or lean manufacturing, digital twins, data analytics, and other tools. The need for these tools has only increased during COVID-19, and the response from our clients has been positive. Our clients include Tierra y Armonía, Vidusa, Cinépolis, CEMEX, BMW and Copachisa.

Q: How would you compare the Mexican market to the Colombian market?

A: The Mexican economy moves at a higher speed than the Colombian economy. Mexico´s infrastructural growth rate is quite notable. In the time it takes to put together a project in Colombia, a project that is larger in terms of capital by a factor of 10 has already been launched in Mexico. This means that you are looking at much larger niches and investment volumes. This is what originally drew us to Mexico, and it is now drawing our attention to the US. With that being said, we remain very interested in the Mexican market. Mexico and Brazil are the most important poles of construction development in the Latin American sphere. However, the Brazilian market can be a bit closed and nationalistic. 

Q: How would you describe your development plans for 2021?

A: We need to understand how the sector will adapt to COVID-19, which will influence the development of the construction sector in 2021 as much as it did in 2020. We adapt to new safety protocols every day. We will continue to focus on promoting the use of digital tools and provide consulting services to our corporate clients. Many people in the corporate world considered the pandemic as the ideal time to start reinventing themselves and their companies. We believe that we can be the best partners for them throughout this process. 

We are also involved in the promotion and implementation of digital tools through broader, industrywide means. For example, we organize an event called the Iberoamerican Congress of Technology and Innovation in the AEC Industry, also called the CITI-AEC. We have been organizing this event every year since 2018. The first was in Mexico City and the second was in Guadalajara in 2019. The event has been growing steadily, and we did the event digitally in in 2020. We hope to hold it in Monterrey in 2021.

C&C Consulting Construction Group is a Latin American design, architecture, construction and development firm originally from Colombia and now based in Guadalajara. It specializes in construction project management.