Simon-Kucher enters Latin America with offices in Brazil and Chile

Simon-Kucher & Partners has continued its global expansion with the opening of two new offices in São Paulo (Brazil) and Santiago de Chile (Chile). The latest opening of hubs sees the international consulting firm grow its footprint to 27 offices in 22 countries.

Founded in 1985, by Hermann Simon and two other co-founders, Eckhard Kucher and Karl-Heinz Sebastian, Simon-Kucher & Partners is a consultancy specialised in strategy, marketing & sales and pricing.

With the expansion into South America, Simon-Kucher & Partners aims at tapping into a new and growing market for its services, said the firm’s two executives.

“Opening offices in Brazil and Chile, two of the strongest markets in Latin America, is a logical step for our globalisation strategy” said Georg Tacke, co-CEO of the consulting firm. Klaus Hilleke, Co-CEO, added: “The new offices will serve as perfect hubs for driving our business on the whole Latin American continent.”

The Latin America business is in the mid-term expected to grow to a revenue of between €10 to €15 million, said the co-CEOs, which if realised, would represent roughly 10% of the additional growth target for the coming timeframe.

To lead the new arm, the consultancy has brought Manuel Osorio on board, who has been appointed Managing Partner of Simon-Kucher South America. Osorio has been with Simon-Kucher since 2004, when he graduated from his MBA attained at MIT Sloan School of Management.

“With our new permanent presences in Brazil and Chile we are now able to support our clients on-site with our service portfolio of strategy, marketing, pricing and sales consulting. Thus, we assure maximum efficiency and optimal closeness to our customers in one sweep," he said.

Osorio previously was based in Miami – the base served as the firm’s main consulting hub for Latin America. “In recent years we’ve conducted over 180 projects for more than 60 companies” said Osorio, adding that projects were staffed with consultants from international offices under leadership of the Miami office. He said that he plans to add forty consultants to its Latin American outfit in the coming years.

The two new offices reflects Simon-Kucher's ambitious international growth strategy. In recent years the past the firm booked back-on-back double-digit growth against the backdrop of a sluggish consulting industry, growing its revenues to €144 million.

However, the target for the coming years is even more ambitious: by 2016, the German-origin management consulting aims to have broken thought the barrier of €250 million in revenues.