2024-01-20 11:48:03
The business was always in the sights of businessman Henry Cubides, a simple man, originally from Moniquirá, Boyacá, who died in Bogotá, after being hospitalized for more than a month at the Santa Fe Foundation in the country’s capital.
He was the owner of Envía, specialized packaging and courier services, which is one of the companies in the emporium he built in the transportation sector, well, Cubides, he got involved in everything. He came to control three leading companies: Coltanques (general cargo, liquids, crude oil and bulk), Envía (messaging and package services) and Metrobus (TransMilenio operator).
The businessman’s death occurred on Friday, after an illness that, apparently, was caused by a bacteria that affected his cardiac system.
Married to Martha Moreno Ulloa and father of five children, Cubides was 84 years old, most of which he dedicated to the transportation business, although he also blazed trails in agriculture and livestock. Furthermore, in the midst of the dynamism that he imposed on his life, he also entered the ranks of politics, a field in which he managed to align himself with liberalism, a party in which he was considered a great leader, after being a councilor in his municipality. native and senator of the Republic.
In the business world
In the business world he started from scratch, when he was just a young man of 22 years old. The first thing he managed was inter-municipal transportation, but from the beginning it was said that he would do it big. That is why he started with 4 buses and became one of the largest businessmen in the sector.
In addition to ensuring the well-being of their employees, both companies seek to exceed the expectations of their customers with personalized service throughout the country.
His story was published in SEMANA
In 2007, SEMANA magazine published his story. These are some of the asides, which are reproduced as a tribute to his work.
“It was difficult for anyone to measure up to him. It was 1984, when the oil boom in Casanar began. The crude oil had to be taken out along an unpaved, narrow road, with many precipices, frequented by the guerrillas and over which a tractor-trailer had never passed. When it rained, it became a real trail. The most dangerous route was between Yopal and Sogamoso.
But Henry Cubides rose to the challenge. By then, his company Coltanques already had about 70 of its own tank trucks, and his experience in crude oil transportation was recognized by the entire hydrocarbon industry in Colombia. But 70 were not enough, at least 300 tractor-trailers were needed, since about 80 had to be loaded daily. To fulfill the contract, Cubides began looking for allies in Duitama to accompany him on this adventure. He scheduled several meetings with transporters in the region, to convince them that the money was passing them through the front of the house. Thus, he motivated many businessmen in the sector to get involved with the exploitation project that lasted 5 years, which generated great prosperity in the region and gave Duitama the reputation of being a transportation municipality.
Those who know Henry Cubides recognize that this contract was one of the most important of his life, due to the volumes he handled and because it definitively positioned him in the transportation sector. They maintain that this case faithfully reflects Cubides’ intuition to identify a good business, and implicitly carries that degree of risk that he always assumes to carry out his projects.
He led Metrobús, TransMilenio operator | Photo: Sebastian Barros/NurPhoto
And indeed, Cubides recognizes that it has not been easy to establish a transport company that mobilizes in the midst of the armed conflict and tough competition. In fact, the guerrillas have burned some 23 tractor trailers, he has been a victim of common crime and has already been kidnapped. Even so, he managed to consolidate over 30 years one of the largest emporiums in the transportation sector, at the head of three companies. leaders: Coltanques (general cargo, liquids, crude oil and bulk), Envía (packaging and specialized courier services) and Metrobus (TransMilenio operator). The three bring together a fleet of 700 of their own vehicles (tractors, tank trucks and vans), generate about 4,000 direct jobs and invoice more than $200,000 million annually.
The growth of each of their companies has been accompanied by much more than luck. Carlos Restrepo, president of Brío Colombia, has known him for more than 20 years. He says that Cubides did not spend his entire life criticizing the state of Colombian roads and, instead of complaining, he structured his own business model around them, creating companies and generating employment. “The guy is a visionary and he was able to identify another series of opportunities with different margins.
And we must start from the fact that Coltanques is an important company for its suppliers. If we use their products, it is because they are good. For these reasons they have given us very good prices in the market for the purchase of trucks, tires, lubricants, spare parts, services, etc. And those prices at which these products are purchased have allowed us to be more competitive. The company has to earn economies of scale to be productive,” he says. Regarding politics, Cubides clarifies that when he has intervened in it it is for the benefit of his region.
Owner of many tractor trailers | Photo: Courtesy of Chipaque Mayor’s Office.
In 1974 he decided to found Colombiana de Tanques SA, Coltanques. With the commercial and legal support of his own firm and with a new fleet of vehicles, he won new tenders to transport crude oil to La Dorada from Campo Dina and Tello, in Huila. Then he worked with Texas in Puerto Boyacá and later, in 1984, he won the contract in Casanare, with which he definitively consolidated himself. Later he aimed for a new business: crude oil from Castilla (Meta). Due to its density, it is not refined but used as fuel in industrial boilers.
So, Cubides decided to bring together all parts of the chain to eliminate intermediaries and offer more competitive prices in the market. He himself buys the crude oil from Castilla from Ecopetrol and markets it in plants in Bogotá, Cali, Medellín, Boyacá and the Coffee Region, and transports it directly to its recipients. In this way, he became the main marketer of crude oil in Colombia. Despite his sense of smell and his innate talent for knowing when to enter a new business and innovate, there are also those who say that luck has been on his side. They say that as a crude oil supplier to Acerías Paz del Río, he received millions of pesos in shares as payment, after this company entered into a concordat, when they were not worth “a cent.”
A key
He himself manages Coltanques, as he maintains that to carry out that position you have to smear yourself with grease, keep an eye on your drivers, walk around the workshops and control everything, absolutely everything. That’s the nature of him, work, work, work. For this reason, he has not left the country and perhaps he never will, because everything he has and loves is here, in Colombia. His case is presented as an example in several administration and economics faculties in the country.
1705754837
#Henry #Cubides #businessman #owned #Envía #controlled #largest #fuel #transportation #conglomerate #Colombia #died