How the Internet Launched Us on a Journey Around the World

Currently, we have a portfolio of 7,500 clients spread over 99 countries. We have given an interview to La Voz de Galicia in which we explain the keys to reaching this situation. Below is the full interview.

Interview in La Voz de Galicia

They are father and son, partners in the company and it seems that they are also friends. When they speak they do not contradict themselves, they do point out or expand the information. They are friendly, close. Their names are Nazario Correa Rodríguez (Vigo, March 11, 1952), and Nazario Correa Sestelo (Redondela, May 3, 1973), CEO and General Manager, respectively, of Rodamientos Vigo (Rodavigo), a company based in Mos , which is fully internationalized thanks to the “discovery” of the Internet. Thus, with simplicity, they confess it.

Question. Last year they sold in 99 countries. How can it be?!

Nazario Correa Rodriguez. The company was born in 1985 and in 2005 we started with a digitization project. We delved deeply into new technologies and in 2008 we launched a B2B portal. Since then our growth has been continuous. We went from being a local company to an international company. Today we sell in the 52 Spanish provinces and on the four continents. Asia, USA, North Africa, South America…

Q. How have they achieved it?

N. C. R. Via internet. Google has us well positioned on its platform. We sell 3.5 million items of industrial supply. They are consumed all over the world. They are from international manufacturers. Any article or we have it in stock or we locate it; We send the offer to the client and we get the order. In the development of this process is the growth of the company. Sales in 2022 are increasing at a year-over-year rate of 20%, compared to last year. We can reach 16 million euros. We have grown in crises, and, to be specified, in January 2022 nine people came to work with us.

Q. You are not afraid of the internet…

N. C. R. To us internet took us out of the village and so we started a trip around the world.

Q. What is the company’s future business plan?

Nazario Correa Sestelo. Continue with the digitization project, incorporate more catalogs on the network, promote the website itself. It is what opens the market for you. It is the way to reach a hundred countries. You have to sell a lot of coffee, and not just the coffee pot. The desirable thing is to distribute the billing among the largest number of clients possible because that way we guarantee we have a future. We will continue betting on digitization. In our sector it is not a common issue. You have to believe, invest and collect. We are harvesting fruits from ten years ago.

Q. How many countries do you want to reach?

N. C. R. I can say that we are opening credit accounts for distant clients. In Latin America, in the United States, in Europe… It is not that we sell to a client one day and then disappear. No, they are repeat customers. Every day we are more demanding with ourselves. When the client has a problem that they are not capable of solving locally, we want them to count on Rodavigo.

Q. They have a relationship with 1,500 manufacturers and…

N. C. R. 7,500 clients.

Q. Your business consists of putting firms from all over the world in contact with manufacturers from all over the world.

N. C. R. That’s it. We have not seen this service in other companies.

Q. Who gave you the idea?

N. C. R. The new technologies. We begin to introduce a few tabs with the characteristics of the articles. It was very simple. We immediately saw the result. So we put resources and desire to push. We knew what the internet was, its potential for our business, when we saw the results in the short term. We are talking about 2005-2007. We realized that by investing in this technology we could attract clients to whom we would offer as wide a catalog as possible. Right now we are at 3.5 million references and we started with 50,000. It would not surprise me if in three years we have another meeting, we may be at 10 million references. We are going to continue on this path looking for new sources of supply to reach the customer.

N. C. S. And we cannot forget that it is a family business.

In 1994 we were six, in 2008 we were 18, now we are 70.

N. C. R. The growth we have had since 2008 has been very important. Even with all the crises.

Q. The B2B telematics platform is key. Who manages the technology?

N. C. R. At the beginning we had an outside company, then we hired the computer technician we had on hand. Today we have a web team responsible for digitizing catalogs, opening markets. Almost all of us are focused on this operation. There are 25 people in the sales department who are only dedicated to offers and orders; another 15 or 20 in the web department, and another group of professionals managing parcels and delivery.

Q. How long does it take to ship an order?

N. C. S. It is important that we have the 3.5 million items that we advertise in stock. 90% of operations are on request. We request an offer from the supplier, we pass it on to the client and if he accepts, we contact the supplier again. If the manufacturer is nearby, in one day we make the order. If we use a supplier from England, it takes a little longer. Sometimes, due to the issue of war, the deadlines are delayed. Our clients are professionals and they know the problem. We talk about one or two days or four or five months.

Q. Does the product always arrive and you distribute it or are the manufacturers the ones who distribute it directly?

N. C. R. He always comes to our warehouses. It arrives in Mos and we ship it anywhere in the world. We have to receive it, confirm that it arrives safely, that everything is correct.

At the back of the office there is a new exercise bike. Every day, Nazario Correa Rodríguez plays sports. He explains that he started working when he was 14 years old and, except for the months of the military service in Ferrol, he didn’t stop until his retirement (but he still doesn’t stop). “You have to move. It is necessary for health », he explains. After playing sports, father and son go for a walk for half an hour. Óscar and Daniel, the other two sons, work in the company. The illusion of the family is to continue with the project and be able to instill in their descendants that they continue with the company. “This is the pending subject”, adds the general director.