Read the Conversation
Meeting highlights:
- Legacy and Resilience: Grupo Vargas was founded in 1942, rooted in a family legacy of perseverance, innovation, and entrepreneurial spirit.
- Strategic Evolution: The company has transformed from a traditional printing house into a diversified packaging partner for multiple industries, such as life sciences, technology, and the beverage industries.
- Vision for the Future: Grupo Vargas aims to exponentially grow its revenues in the next decade while building new business units that ensure long-term independence from its current core business.
- One-Stop Shop Concept: The company offers a complete suite of secondary packaging solutions, including folding cartons, IFUs, MRO, and labels, under a single roof.
- Redefining Identity: Seen by customers not just as a printer, but as a strategic medical device partner committed to quality, compliance, and growth.
EF: Could you share the history of Grupo Vargas, and what are the core values and cultural elements that have kept the family organization resilient over the past 80 years?
MV: With a heritage of over 83 years, our organization stands as proof of our entrepreneurial spirit, ability to identify market opportunities, and resilience.
The company’s origins date back to 1942, when my grandfather, a skilled printing machine operator, seized the opportunity to purchase printing equipment in Puntarenas. Lacking the necessary funds, he got a loan of 30,000 colones (around $60) from his father-in-law, a substantial sum at the time, and established Imprenta Marco Tulio Vargas.
The company’s first operations began in a garage, but as production expanded to a second shift, neighborhood complaints about noise prompted several relocations. By the 1950s, downtown San José had emerged as a center for printing businesses, and Imprenta Vargas found its new home there, further cementing its reputation in the industry.
Throughout the 1940s to the 1970s, the business focused on meeting diverse market needs, producing wedding invitations, personal cards, invoice pads, and other essential printed materials. One of the company’s defining characteristics has always been its keen ability to identify and respond to shifting market opportunities. The 1960s and 1970s marked a strategic transition into the packaging sector, beginning with food product labels and later expanding into folding cartons.
Between 1970 and 1990, Imprenta Vargas concentrated on labels for the food industry. A pivotal moment arrived in 1990, when the company began producing beer labels for FIFCO, the national brewery and a major regional player.
The 1990s and 2000s saw the company fully immersed in packaging, producing not only folding cartons but also innovative promotional packaging solutions for major clients. Projects ranged from six-pack carriers for glass bottles to custom inserts designed to protect promotional items such as glasses, all while maintaining a focus on cost-effectiveness and client profitability.
From 2008 to 2010, Imprenta Vargas became the leading provider of pineapple export labels in Costa Rica, serving every major exporter in the sector.
What distinguishes our company is an enduring commitment to innovation, adaptability, and quality. From modifying machines to print on wood for early projects to embracing the latest in printing technology, the spirit of entrepreneurship instilled by our founder continues to guide us. That spirit – strengthened and elevated by the vision and leadership of the second generation – has fostered a pursuit of excellence that proudly lives on in today´s generation.
EF: How was your transition to the Life Sciences sector?
MV: During our time in the pineapple label market, we quickly identified both the potential and the intensifying competition. Initially, Vargas was the sole player, but the entry of 6 additional companies led to a sharp decline in prices, rendering the market unsustainable. The pivotal moment arrived around 2009–2010, prompting us to reassess our commercial strategy and identify the medical device industry as not only resilient but ripe with long-term growth and higher value opportunities. In pursuit of greater operational sustainability and financial performance, the company formalized its internal structure to become a supplier capable of delivering tailored solutions with business excellence.
At the same time, my father, who had served in public office across 3 presidential administrations, assumed significant national responsibilities. This development prompted us to formalize our company’s operations, culminating in the appointment of an external general manager. This transition represented a significant milestone for us as a family-owned business. While the process was pragmatic rather than sentimental, it was essential for establishing a robust governance structure and ensuring operational continuity.
Our strategic shift was further accelerated with our initial engagement with Allergan in 2012 and other important OEMs, who played an important role during the next years, where we served as a secondary supplier for folding cartons. We soon recognized broader opportunities, expanding our services to include the production of instruction manuals for medical devices.
In 2013, CINDE organized one of the early editions of the Life Sciences Forum, a significant event featuring international speakers and panels. The forum proved transformative for our company, opening the door to a new market with rigorous standards.
EF: How has the Life Sciences sector impacted your business?
MV: Our revenue has increased fourfold since 2013, reflecting a decade of sustained growth and strategic transformation. We’ve nearly doubled our team—from 215 people when we arrived in Coyol to 325 today. And all of that growth is directly tied to the life sciences sector.
Today, we deliver over 4 million IFUs (Instructions for Use inserts) every month, and around 2.5 million folding cartons. On the brewery side, there are seasonal spikes, especially when we’re churning out packaging for promotions that require custom-made special packaging. But it’s exciting, and it shows what the facility is capable of.
Currently, approximately 70% of our business is in the life sciences. We also work in advanced manufacturing with other clients. The brewery business accounts for approximately 25% of our revenue, with the remaining 5% coming from other segments.
EF: What were the decisions that made Grupo Vargas evolve into a professionalized family organization that allowed you to become a partner of choice?
MV: A pivotal factor in our progress has been a fundamental shift in our approach to standardization. Early in our development, we recognized the critical role of certifications and made a deliberate commitment to pursue them with rigor. Today, our organization holds certifications including ISO 9001, 13485, 27001, and 50001, as well as FSC, LEED Silver, and Programa País Carbono Neutralidad, among others. Our journey began with adherence to good manufacturing practices, and as we expanded, these certifications provided additional structure and discipline to our operations.
We are now a certified carbon-neutral company, and our commitment to sustainability is reflected not only in our documentation but also in our daily interactions with clients and suppliers. Our ESG Strategy integrates energy efficiency through our ISO programs, LEED Silver certification, and FSC traceability, ensuring that raw materials can be tracked to their forest origins.
Another significant decision that fueled our growth was the recruitment of experienced professionals from the industry. Their presence inspired confidence during client audits and visits, as clients recognized familiar faces with substantial industry experience.
To foster effective communication, I introduced a blend of English and Spanish—Spanglish—into our daily operations. We developed a glossary with more than 200 commonly used English terms, which enhanced our understanding, especially when implementing new machinery. Given that all documentation and client-facing materials are in English, this approach has significantly improved clarity and connection with Global Sourcing Teams.
By 2013, we had established a clear objective: to do everything within our power to avoid being the cause of downtime for an OEM’s production line. This commitment to reliability and operational excellence remains a cornerstone of our strategy.
EF: How has your organization evolved its quality control processes, aligning with the expectations of medical device partners and supporting business excellence?
MV: Over the years, we have significantly reduced the impact of human error in our quality control processes. Initially, our approach relied heavily on manual inspection. Recognizing the limitations of this method, we transitioned to better methods in alignment with the medical industry standards.
Our understanding of business and operational excellence deepened through benchmarking with our OEM partners. Today, we operate a comprehensive continuous improvement model. We have dedicated a space equipped with four large screens that display our balanced scorecard and real-time updates from our integrated software.
Our medical device partners expect reliability, consistency, and commitment. They also seek partners capable of scaling with them, providing storage solutions, and managing inventory efficiently. Recognizing that production space is at a premium, we designed our Coyol facility to include over 4,000 square meters of warehousing, supporting both our internal requirements and those of our business partners.
EF: Looking ahead at your 85th anniversary, how do you want your leadership and legacy to be remembered within the company, and what will your toasting speech be?
MV: Throughout my tenure with the company, I have had the privilege of achieving a significant milestone by serving as the first account executive in the field. Convincing major companies to place their trust in what was then a small, family-owned business was a pivotal moment in our history and a testament to our ambition and resilience.
As a member of the third generation, my focus has shifted toward steering the company into new territory. In recent years, we have successfully diversified our operations, ensuring that we are no longer solely reliant on our core business. Our commitment to the printing and packaging sector remains unwavering; it is a cornerstone of our legacy and a responsibility we honor with great seriousness.
The third generation and current administration´s goal is to lay a robust foundation for the company’s next 80 years by establishing new business units and pursuing fresh opportunities. Navigating this journey independently presents its challenges, but our track record—having doubled our revenue over the past decade—gives me confidence in our ability to achieve similar growth in the future.
The printing and packaging division will continue to be an integral part of our identity. However, my aspiration is to ensure that future generations inherit a company with a broader scope, enabling them to build upon our legacy without being confined by the boundaries of our current operations.
EF: Do you have any final message?
MV: Our entire commercial approach as a company is built around the concept of a one-stop shop. That’s the core of our model. We no longer view ourselves solely as a printing company; beyond that, we are a partner that offers a relationship founded on the fulfillment of promises, personalized service, and an integrated management model of continuous improvement and operational excellence that ensures each product meets the highest quality standards.
