When it comes to new business ventures, a diverse range of backgrounds and perspectives can provide the creativity and innovation needed to stand out from the crowd. This can be particularly important when trying to disrupt or evolve well-established and entrenched marketplaces – just think of the multinational founding teams at Google, PayPal and WhatsApp.

One company to embrace such diversity is Eco-Químicos IHS. The cleaning products manufacturer is dedicated to bringing safer, more efficient and economical cleaning products to emerging markets in Honduras and across Central America. While its founders originally came from Nicaragua and the United States, the company’s management team – understanding the need for varied and country-specific expertise – now includes people from Honduras, highlighting the country’s strategic importance to Eco-Químicos IHS’s growth and innovation efforts.

Building a global presence with an intellectual property strategy

The company’s international leadership is reflected in Eco-Químicos IHS’s global aims. The management team has spied a clear opportunity to sell safe and sustainable cleaning products both direct to households and to businesses such as hotels, restaurants and supermarkets in Central America. The region has experienced gradual economic growth in recent decades and, with this, a growing middle class that is not only more conscious of sustainability issues but able to afford higher quality, more sustainable products.

Eco-Químicos IHS has a physical presence and growing market footprint in Honduras and Nicaragua as well as links with laboratories in the United States. It also hopes to expand to other countries. However, when the company’s leadership began laying the groundwork for this expansion, they realized that they first needed to understand the principles of intellectual property (IP), brand management and product internationalization.

As part of its international growth strategy, Eco-Químicos IHS harnessed the power of IP to help build global recognition. In early 2023, the company was selected to participate in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)’s e-commerce and IP mentoring program for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The program was created in response to a request by WIPO Member States at the Forum of Ministers for Intellectual Property of Central America and the Dominican Republic, who had observed that many MSMEs were struggling cope with the side effects of the COVID-19 pandemic following the switch from physical to digital marketplaces due to lockdowns.

WIPO’s e-commerce and IP mentoring program worked with 154 people from across Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and the Dominican Republic. It taught businesses not only how to strengthen their online presence but to improve their use of national and international IP systems for commercial success.

Eco-Químicos IHS was one of the 49 MSMEs to benefit from the program’s one-on-one mentoring with e-commerce and IP experts. With this support, the company’s leadership devised a long-term strategy for the company’s expansion in Central America. They also learned about the importance of securing the company’s IP assets in order to build its credibility, improve consumer trust and prevent infringements. They have since obtained trademark registration for its products.

Leveraging IP to Lead in Cleaning Product Innovation Central to Eco-Químicos IHS’s IP strategy are trade secrets, which it uses to protect its product formulations and processes. These formulations are at the heart of the company’s mission to provide more sustainable cleaning products. For example, all its products are free from chlorine, which helps to prevent damage to surfaces and the environment. In its place, Eco-Químicos IHS favors next-generation chemicals that are gentler and less pungent, while still being effective and long-lasting against a wide range of pathogens. By keeping these valuable formulations as trade secrets, Eco-Químicos IHS retains a competitive advantage in a crowded market.

Another benefit resulting from the mentoring sessions is the creation of two main brands. The first is the ‘Clean Xtreme’ line of concentrated cleaning products, aimed directly at household customers and businesses such as hotels, restaurants and supermarkets. The second is the ‘I Love My Pet’ brand, which includes care products for pets, such as shampoos, disinfectants and products to prevent pets from urinating in unwanted places.

With a diverse team, a new long-term strategy in place and its IP more secure, Eco-Químicos IHS is now planning to bring these two product lines to more customers throughout Central America. By combining expertise in advanced formulations with a deep understanding of regional markets, the company is creating cleaning solutions that are safer for people and pets but also sustainable for the environment.