PPG has recently opened a distribution center in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, to serve its PPG-Comex business. The company recently marked completion of the project, which helps to maintain more than 200 jobs in the region, with a grand-opening ceremony attended by Jorge Vidal Ahumada, Sonora’s minister of economy.

With nearly 34,200 square feet (3,176 square meters) of space, the new center accommodates storage of about 3.5 million liters (about 924,600 gallons) of paint and coatings to help improve the distribution and commercialization of COMEX® brand and other PPG products in the Pacific region of Mexico.

“With this new distribution center, we will grow the presence of and loyalty to the Comex brand in the Pacific region,” said Marcos Achar, chief executive officer of PPG-Comex and PPG vice president of architectural coatings, Latin America. “This will strengthen our distribution model and allow us to maintain growth rates of double national GDP, by enabling us to more efficiently help our growing base of Mexican retail customers, especially those in the Pacific region, to protect and beautify their homes and build lasting projects.”

Achar said the new distribution center is part of a larger effort by PPG-Comex to expand its presence in northwestern Mexico. “The Pacific region is a significant part of Mexico’s paints and coatings market, with growing cities such as Mexicali, Chihuahua, Los Cabos and La Paz. Our Hermosillo distribution center not only reduces our shipping time to regional paint stores to one day or less from five days, but it also supports our plan to open 30 additional paint stores in the region during 2016.”

PPG-Comex is PPG’s architectural coatings business in Mexico and Central America. The Comex brand has 4,000 stores and is a leader in the manufacture, marketing and distribution of decorative paints, wood care products, industrial coatings, drywall, accessories and more in the region. The Comex brand fortifies its leadership with constant innovation and expansion and offers more than 15,000 solutions that beautify and protect life.