INTERVIEW WITH MR. JOSE MANUEL MENENDEZ CAMINO – DOUBLE M

October 14, 2021

1. Kindly tell us something about your work profile/business including yourself.

We are a consultancy company specialized in market entry services and sales representation. Double M Group started in 2.013 in Indonesia and expanded their activity to Vietnam in 2.020. We have commercial presence in more than 10 countries in Asia-Pacific, including Australia, and in these years we have had a Total Sales Generated for Clients of +$100M and more than 200 customers including companies and organizations like La Liga, Hero, Bellota, Rakuten or trade agencies like Extenda and Ivace

Personally myself, I’m an e entrepreneur and market entry consultant with more than 10 years of experience. Having developed my career in Europe, Africa, North America, Australia and Asia, I have supported companies to enter and do business in 5 different continents. My experience has a multisectoral background and expertise in internationalization process. I have achieved a significant presence and sales in Vietnam and the Asia-Pacific region.

2. When did you first start your business in Vietnam and how has your professional career or your company’s career developed since then?

First customer opened in Vietnam was in 2.016 and I was supplying them minerals for animal nutrition produced in the Chemical Park of Huelva. Today this is one of the core business of our company and Andalucía chemical exports have been recently the biggest HS code exported from Andalucía to the world. As an example, in Australia we are the second supplier after China with a total amount of 6.000 metric tons per year

3. How do you think EVFTA will benefit EU and Vietnam companies after this pandemic? Are there any new strategies that you’re adapting for this new situation?

This is something strategical for both regions and it was on the table for a long time before it finally got approved in 2.020. Vietnam and Spain have more things in common than what we usually think. The EVFTA is quite soft for the parts and some sectors will get benefits and some others, for example fruit and vegetable farming, need to have an eye on it and adapt themselves to the new situation to still be competitive

It’s quite early to have an evaluation as it will take few years to reduce the 99% of the import duties, but for sure we can say its historical and approach Europe and Vietnam

4. What do you think are the biggest challenges in your industry in the future with EVFTA?

Our industry defining it as market entry consultancy has had a significant increase in the number of companies that want to sell their products in Asia. Our team has the perfect profile for providing these kind of services and our years of experience is a game changer: We understand what the exporters need and we understand how to introduce that to the local companies, so we can save a lot of time and resources to the companies in their internationalization process

5. In relation to the current pandemic (CoVid-19) that the world is facing, how has your company been affected and what actions do you propose to better the situation?

We had to adapt all our services to digital and our estimation is that we have to spend 30% more time in a, let’s say matchmaking service, than when the companies use to travel. But we have found that these digitalization has advantages, it’s much more affordable, fast and as we provide hosting and translation services during the online meetings, we can help to drive the conversation to the point. Our ratio of satisfaction from our customers has increased in the last months

6. Please tell us a little about the future plans of Double M.

Double M will continue our own internationalization process opening a new office in Bangkok in 2.022. This will position us as an strategical partner with presence in 3 of the most interesting countries in ASEAN, with a local structure and specialized human resources, and in my opinion, this makes a big difference with other consultancy companies offering similar services but not even established in the country

Many thanks to Mr. Manuel for sharing your experience with us.