ORLANDO, Fla. — The Multisector Commercial Trade Mission took place in Orlando on Wednesday.
Over 25 business representatives from Puerto Rico met with community members to discuss expanding into the Central Florida area.
- Puerto Rican business owners are discussing new opportunities
- Businesses aim to market to all communities
- Manufacturing plants predicted to open in next 5 years
It’s a chance at a growing Hispanic market, starting with more than 1.2 million Puerto Ricans.
“It’s an opportunity to be a part of that 20 percent market that growing market,” Axel Otero the business development director for Hacienda Munoz (a Puerto Rican coffee company) said.
“The way that people moved from Puerto Rico to Orlando [after Hurricane Maria] that bring us an opportunity,” Lemuel Perez president of Paletados [a Puerto Rican popsicle company] said.
One of the biggest hurdles that business owners from Puerto Rico say they will have to overcome when they make the move to Central Florida is how to market to everyone. In Puerto Rico, they just market to Puerto Ricans but in Central Florida they market to all communities.
It is a task that Global Mattress was able to succeed in. The company recently opened its fifth store in Orlando after less than a year.
“If you connect to the right professionals and community leaders in Central Florida, you’ll have success,” Javier Tejeda, director of U.S. operations for Global Mattress said.
“If we see that we accomplish our goals in and we see more opportunity to expand it to other states, definitely we’ll go for it,” Perez said.
All three businesses plan to open manufacturing plants in Central Florida within the next five years.