El Campo Imports sought to bring the tastes of the world to Chicago. A financial partnership with Silo helped them extend their international reach and expand into new markets.
Case Study
Partner Locally, Compete Globally
“Recently, we used Silo Cash Advance to pay up front for loads of products from places like India, Mexico, and Sri Lanka. This allowed us to expand our customer base in Chicago and break into New England and the Midwest markets in just four months.”
Ernesto Hernandez
Founder and CEO at El Campo Imports Inc.
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El Campo Imports Inc.
Hailing from Zacatecas, Mexico and now based in Chicago, USA, El Campo Imports specializes in providing quality, healthy dry goods to their US and Mexican communities. By importing product directly from the source abroad and utilizing modern post-harvest technology to process it, El Campo Imports ensures convenience and competitive pricing for their customers. Ultimately, El Campo Imports strives to be a leading produce supplier across national and international markets and improve the standard of living for their global communities.
Location
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Team Size
20
Their Goals
To become a leading supplier of imported dried goods in North America and expand their in-house production of El Campo Imports branded snacks.
Special ingredient to share
Dried guajillo chilis
Pack a powerful punch of flavor and spice into every meal you serve your friends. What’s your secret sauce?
Guajillo chili hot sauce!
Ingredients
- 1 loosely packed cup of dried Guajillo chili peppers
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 head garlic - peeled
- ¼ cup brown sugar
Instructions
Step 1
Cut the tops off of your chili peppers, then place them in a small bowl. Heat your water to boiling, then pour it over the peppers. Soak peppers in the water for about 30 minutes, then drain them.
Step 2
Add the peppers to the bowl with the garlic cloves, then pour enough vinegar over them to cover. Use your spoons again to keep the peppers from floating, and soak for 30 minutes more.
Step 3
Pour the peppers, garlic, and vinegar into a food processor and add the sugar. Blend until smooth.
Step 4
Taste and adjust with salt and vinegar. Strain if desired.
Silo Capital gave El Campo Imports the Fire Power it needed to Compete Globally
The Challenge
Ernesto Hernandez, Founder and CEO of El Campo Imports Inc, moved his family business from Zacatecas, Mexico to Chicago, USA when he saw an opportunity to connect diverse American communities to cultural cuisines abroad. As El Campo Imports leaned into the importing and shipping side of their business, they faced challenges paying up front to suppliers overseas, bridging cash flow gaps, and building the relationships necessary to diversify. As a result, they felt constrained in their ability to grow in the direction they wanted and to remain competitive.
The Solution
Silo Cash Advance gave El Campo Imports the resources they needed to maintain their competitive edge in the marketplace and safely grow their business. Silo Cash Advance helped Ernesto to initiate relationships overseas that required cash upfront to establish trust and to seize opportunities to expand supply. Silo’s personalized approach made financing simple for El Campo Imports and gave them the peace of mind they needed to grow confidently.
With Silo Cash Advance you can go and meet new partners and have confidence because you are not all talk - you have the funds you need to back up the deal you want to make. Money changes the game.
The Results
25% revenue growth in 4 months following their first draw
Funds provided through Silo Cash Advance allowed El Campo Imports to fund multiple loads of product at once. This gave them the product supply they needed to fill more orders and generate more revenue.
3 new suppliers, 3 new commodities, 2 new territories
Silo Cash Advance gave El Campo the resources they needed to meet new demand and expand their customer base into New England and the Midwest. The influx of funds were used to improve their supply by establishing new supplier relationships and diversifying into high-demand commodities.
New industrial kitchen to produce El Campo brand products
El Campo Imports used funds provided by Silo Cash Advance to build and staff their own industrial kitchen and begin producing their own snack products to sell in the retail market.
Read the Full Story
How El Campo Imports Brought the World to Chicago with the Help of Silo Capital
After moving his family to Chicago, Ernesto Hernandez, founder and CEO of El Campo Imports, discovered a diverse customer base for his Guajillo chilis among his new Chicago community. Here, Ernesto saw an opportunity to connect multicultural Chicagoans like himself to the traditional tastes and commodities they loved.
Fierce competition among wholesale produce suppliers in Chicago soon required El Campo Imports to diversify their supply and explore ways to stand out. They began by using their foothold in foreign goods to expand their suppliers overseas and specialize as the wholesaler that could bring foreign products directly to their customer. Through skill and diligence, Ernesto and his daughter Andrea used trend-tracking, diversification, and authentic relationship building to meet new demands in the market.
The unique burden of the Importer
As the importing side of their business took off, El Campo Imports grew accustomed to managing a certain level of risk. When fronting money to initiate a new supplier relationship, Andrea explained that “you have to take your time and make sure you do your due diligence. Because you are putting up a lot of money, you need to be careful.”
After paying for their product, however, El Campo Imports still had to wait for weeks before seeing any return on their investment. Harvesting, processing and shipping dried goods from overseas took time, resulting in weeks long gaps between their initial purchase of product and seeing that investment come back as sales revenue.
During this time, they conserved resources which often meant forgoing opportunities to enhance supply and expand where it counted.
Ernesto and Andrea recognized that to remain competitive and grow to their full potential, they needed access to more readily available funding. However, their community distrusted traditional financing companies and banks due to historically bad experiences. El Campo Imports felt stuck until a long time associate presented a new kind of financing option that offered a promising path forward.
If a political situation is developing and we need to move products over the border fast in order to beat a price hike, Silo Cash Advance is critical. Or if hail comes down and ruins the crops, we know we can act quickly to source product elsewhere.
Discovering Silo
It was Ernesto’s business associate of thirty years that initially recommended Silo as a more modern and trust-worthy financial alternative, but it would be his daughter Andrea who ultimately needed to approve.
“I do a lot of vetting for our company. In our community and in our industry, we know that there are scams out there,” Andrea explained. Through her rigorous evaluation process, she learned that Silo was a well-regarded technology and financing company designed for perishables businesses like El Campo Imports. Intrigued and excited, El Campo Imports scheduled an exploratory call with Silo’s team.
Their early skepticism soon evaporated.
From the start, Ernesto and Andrea found the Silo team to be attentive and their services to be personalized to the specific needs of El Campo Imports.
They would ultimately enroll in Silo Cash Advance to enable more seamless spot purchases and diversify with greater freedom.
If time is money, act fast with Silo Cash Advance
With fast access to funds via Silo Cash Advance, El Campo Imports could now fill their operational cash flow gaps by investing in multiple loads at once and no longer had to forgo opportunities as they waited for sales revenues. “Recently, we used Silo Cash Advance to pay up front for loads of chilies from India, garlic from Mexico, and cinnamon from Sri Lanka” said Ernesto. This allowed them to grow their footprint in Chicago and break into New England and Midwest markets within just four months.
With available funds in their back pocket, El Campo Imports could more easily forge new supplier relationships and diversify their stock quickly when a new trend arose. “With Silo Cash Advance you can go and meet new partners and have confidence because you are not all talk - you have the funds you need to back up the deal you want to make. Money changes the game,” said Andrea.
This allowed them to stay ahead of local wholesale competitors and make deals internationally with growers of hibiscus in Nigeria and tamarinds in Thailand, that before would have seemed only accessible to bigger businesses.
I thought the Silo process would be much more complicated. It’s simple. And everyone on the Silo team responds so quickly to our questions or our needs. It’s great.
A partnership that fosters trust and makes financing easy
Ultimately, a partnership with Silo gave El Campo Imports the financial firepower they needed to remain competitive and in control of their financial future.
