Castro del Rio Technoindustrial Park (CDR) — a Marabis Development and the largest private industrial park in the state of Guanajuato — is home to many of these companies, basically because it is just 17 miles from the GM plant and 21 miles from the VW engines plant, both in Silao; 18 miles from the Mazda plant in Salamanca; and 42.5 miles from the Honda plant in Celaya. Nissan Aguascalientes is also located only 112 miles from CDR; Mexico City is only 200 miles away; the U.S. border can be reached in nine hours; and both east and west coast seaports are within just six hours.
To top it off, the park offers a premium utility infrastructure with available, expandable sites. More than 700,000 people live within a 15-mile radius, providing a young, qualified workforce at a competitive cost. Additionally, and very important for a development of its kind, a public institution (CONALEP) can train technicians on-site; this is thanks to the Schaeffler Group which initiated this program based on the German model of creating a tailor-made training program, another important advantage for suppliers to the automotive industry and other firms.
Within the past eight years, 57 companies — including more than 45 international firms — have set up shop in CDR. Marabis Group has one more industrial park in the neighboring area besides CDR in Irapuato — Marabis Abasolo, also in the state of Guanajuato, is only 40 minutes away from CDR, with the same world-class infrastructure that international companies are looking for to run a successful industrial manufacturing operation.
