About

Farmacias del Ahorro is the leading pharmaceutical retail chain in Mexico. Besides its offering of prescription medication and branded products, it leads the market with its own generic pharmaceuticals and over the counter products. The company started in 1991, when it originally began operations with one pharmacy in the southern state of Chiapas. Today, the chain is a fully branded company and has grown impressively over the past 26 years, with over 1,500 pharmacies across 28 states in Mexico. When the company started, its legal matters were handled by external lawyers, but in 2015 the legal team was formed and started managing 90% of its legal matters in-house. The legal team is now comprised of 25 lawyers and is led by its executive legal director and corporate affairs counsel Arnulfo Eduardo Treviño Garza. The legal team has helped Farmacias del Ahorro to consolidate and secure a strong brand identity and build an extensive distribution network within the market. It is divided into seven departments: litigation and regulatory led by Diana Guadalupe Peña Valdez; labour led by Juan Wilberto Sanchez Montelongo; real estate led by Diana María Pineda Alanís; corporate secretary by Isabela Menéndez Vela; compliance by Carolina Ramírez Aguirre; contracts by Elias Muñoz García; and corporate affairs by Ana Ximena Suinaga Romero de Terreros. Over the last year the team has tackled different challenges including re-drafting its agreements to make them easier to track and to enforce in courts, rotating team members aiming for a more complete development of all members of the team, and led training across the company in employment standards and law. The team has also led on a solar energy project that will supply 90% of the electric demand of the company’s nearly 1,600 outlets, and achieved a 90% effectiveness statistic on the success of litigations. Muñoz identifies that his team is ‘young, dynamic and cohesive’ and a major part of the company’s success.