In spring 2024, a long-term dream comes true for Manuel Hospach. On April 10, he lands at Mexico City airport with his family. The four of them are trav­eling with a lot of luggage, as they have come to stay – initially for two years. During this time, Hospach takes up the job of Director Sales & Service at Uhlmann México. The sales and service branch in Santiago de Queré­taro has been in oper­a­tion since february 2023.

A total of eight employees work from there, primarily looking after customers in Mexico, but also in other Latin Amer­ican coun­tries such as Costa Rica and Cuba. “In Mexico, these are both, local and multi­na­tional compa­nies, mostly generics manu­fac­turers that mainly produce for Latin America, but also the large global phar­ma­ceu­tical compa­nies that export to the USA,” explains Manuel Hospach.

Unlike in the neigh­boring USA, Mexican manu­fac­turers mainly pack in blis­ters. The BEC 300 and BEC 500 blister lines are there­fore Uhlmann’s best-selling machines in this region. The signs there are currently pointing to growth. “We are on the upswing here, are receiving incred­ibly posi­tive feed­back from our customers and want to posi­tion ourselves even better strate­gi­cally and grow accord­ingly.”

Mexico-love

Hospach himself is a true Uhlmann native. He is writing his bachelor’s and master’s theses in sales and will then start as a trainee in Laupheim. When he applied for the job, he already said that he would like to go abroad later. He quickly took over his own sales terri­tory in northern South America and was respon­sible for customer acqui­si­tion, support and sales in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, among other things. He later took over the Mexican market, but from Laupheim. When the posi­tion of Director Sales & Service became vacant at Uhlmann México in 2024, it was clear to the 31-year-old that this was where he wanted to be. And his boss also gave the green light. He already knew Mexico through an exchange program with the Univer­sity Tec de Monterrey: “During my semester abroad there, I fell in love with the country straight away.”

A bumpy start

The Hospachs prepare well for their time abroad. And yet: “Emigrating with two small chil­dren is yet another chal­lenge,” admits Manuel Hospach. One stum­bling block: as the move took place in the middle of the school year, they did not yet have a school place for their then seven-year-old son Tom. “So my wife started home­schooling for three months. She coped incred­ibly well with this, but of course it brought some chal­lenges with it. New country, new language, new people – and on the other side of the world. In the mean­time, the ceiling some­times falls on your head.” Finally, the good news: Tom will be able to start second grade at a school with a Swiss school system from September 2024. He will be taught in German and Spanish. And Tom quickly feels right at home: “He has lots of Mexican friends and already speaks great Spanish,” says Hospach proudly.

Finding new friends

His wife Anna and their daughter Lotta, who is now three, are finding it diffi­cult to settle in. The distance to her family back home is a problem for Anna. The time differ­ence makes even regular phone calls diffi­cult. “The family life just completely disap­peared. No rela­tives, no friends. That was very hard,” says Hospach. Then there are the language barriers and the many small and large orga­ni­za­tional issues that have to be dealt with. But Anna doesn’t give up that easily. She looked for a Spanish course and with her new-found linguistic confi­dence, she quickly made contacts. “Today she is well inte­grated, is friends with many mothers from school and feels very comfort­able here,” says Hospach.

He and his family have been in Mexico for a year now and the youngest member of the family has really arrived. “Lotta is the only non-Mexican child in the kinder­garten, which is of course a huge adjust­ment. Today, however, she is already looking forward to seeing her friends Macarena and Regina on the way to kinder­garten in the morning.”

Every­thing-is-good mentality

Manuel Hospach believes that Mexico makes it easy to quickly feel at home. When asked about the biggest differ­ence to Germany, he says: “Struc­ture! Or rather, the lack of struc­tures as we know them and are used to.” A lot of things are a little more relaxed in Mexico and where things are some­times very rigid in Germany, there is more room for flex­i­bility here – and the confi­dence that a good solu­tion can always be found. “People here are much more posi­tive and opti­mistic than at home, people are very cheerful. There is no shortage of praise and compli­ments. Personal rela­tion­ships are partic­u­larly impor­tant in Mexico,” says Hospach.

He continues to be impressed by the enor­mous diver­sity: “Mexico has so many facets – scenic, culi­nary: We have desert, moun­tains and beaches. And then the open­ness of the people. I have learned to appre­ciate that incred­ibly.” Can he imagine staying longer than the planned two years? “Defi­nitely!” he says imme­di­ately.