Introduction

In a world that is increasingly competitive, small and medium-sized companies have to find a way to keep up and this is only achieved by competing between equal sized companies, but above all by competing against large companies, as these companies have taken advantage over small and medium-sized enterprises, leading to the disappearance of many of them.

The concept of an integrating company emerged from a model adopted in the Italian economy and has been successfully applied in industrialized economies in which all micro, small and medium enterprises are integrated to strengthen the productive apparatus by increasing both production and negotiation capacity in the markets and therefore the economy of their countries, as it is intended to be applied in Mexico (^{Campos, 2007}).

^{Nyssen (1996)} mentions that “union make force”, and it is not the exception in the case of integrating companies, since the integration of the companies is sought so they can be in much better competitive conditions. That is why integrating companies, properly used and managed by real professionals, can be the ideal instrument for the growth of its associates and an excellent way for them to face the commercial opening in which our country is currently immersed.

The program of support for artisanal activity for 1991-1994 published in the Official Gazette of the 1st of June (^{DOF, 1992}), already contemplated the possibility of the integrating companies as a growth alternative for microindustries, in this case, those belonging to the craft sector were the companies that were intended to promote, as mentioned in point 37 of the program, which is transcribed below: “The creation of integrating companies in partnership with national or foreigners private initiative investors in order to encourage productivity and specialization in the production processes to seek for the efficiently incursion of these goods in the export markets, thereby obtaining savings in the acquisition of raw materials and inputs and technical assistance As well as improvements in the design and implementation of marketing activities” (^{DOF, 1992}).

The Secretariat of Commerce and Industrial Development has been in charge of establishing the guidelines for the constitution and operation of this type of companies as mentioned in its internal regulations (DOF, 1993).

The community of Ixtlán de Juárez maintains the customs and habits system as a traditional structure of community organization and government. This system, referred to the charges and the tequio (unpaid communal work for the community benefit), was recognized by the Law of Indigenous Rights and Culture of the state of Oaxaca government from 1997 and the first exploits that are registered in Ixtlán de Juárez began in the 40’s decade. In 1949, a ban was issued by presidential decree on the municipalities included within the Basin of the Papaloapan River. For this reason, the company of Manuel García lost the concession and in 1956 he retired with his industry (^{Ramírez, 2002}).

However, in 1958, FAPATUX, the Tuxtepec Paper Factories Company, obtained the concession of the community forests for a period of 25 years. The use made by FAPATUX caused a forests deterioration due to its selective extraction system, by which the best trees were harvested, causing a decrease in the mean diameters (^{Sastre, 2008}). In 1974, this company established a sawmill called IXCAXIT, integrated by the towns of Ixtlán de Juárez, Capulalpam de Méndez, Santiago Xiacui and La Trinidad, but it did not belong directly to the communities.

In 1980, the government tried to renew the concessions indefinitely but the communal movement grew and demanded to regain control of its forests. In that same year the Organization in Defense of the Natural Resources of Sierra Juárez, began the fight by the legal recognition of its rights on the forest. In 1981, the “José López Portillo Forest Production Unit” was set up, consisting of the communities of Ixtlán de Juárez, Capulalpam de Méndez, Santiago Xiacui and La Trinidad Ixtlán. The Unit worked until 1988, in which it was disintegrated leaving only Ixtlán de Juárez. (^{Montes, 1995}).

In 2005 the furniture factory was inaugurated, bringing the community to complete the production process and become an integrating company from the standing tree to its transformation into furniture (Figure 1). In 2007, a new sawmill of the Spanish brand Barton was acquired with state-of-the-art technology and two Italian drying stoves of Secea brand of 47 m³ capacity each (^{Saavedra, 2006}).

Figure 1 Diagram of an integrated pine logging company. 

The objective of this paper was to determine the financial profitability of the use of pine wood from an integrating company in Ixtlán de Juárez, Oaxaca.

Materials and methods

Location of study area

The compan y under study is located in the state of Oaxaca, its approximate distance to the state capital is 65 km. It is located in the Sierra Norte region, it belongs to the District of Ixtlán de Juárez. It is located at the coordinates: latitude north 17° 20’ and longitude 96° 29’, at an altitude of 2 030 m. It borders to the north with Santiago Comaltepec and Ayotzintepec, to the south with Guelatao de Juárez, San Miguel Amatlán, Capulalpam de Méndez, San Miguel Yotao and San Pedro Yaneri, to the west with San Pablo Macuiltianguis, San Juan Atepec, San Juan Evangelista Analco and Santa María Jaltiaguis and to the east with Santiago Jocotepec, Santiago Camotlán, Santiago Lalopa, San Juan Yaeé and Tanetze de Zaragoza (^{Castellanos et al., 2008}) (Figura 2).

Figure 2 Location of the studied integrating company. 

Materials and methods

In order to carry out this research, we collected financial information used to obtain forest use in Ixtlán de Juárez, prices and sales volumes were obtained to calculate the financial indicators and determine the profitability of the project through the traditional approach: net present value (NPV) and Internal rate of return (IRR), the financial analysis was carried out to 5 years.

In order to obtain results of the forest production situation, a bibliographic review was carried out. The information sources were: field visits and surveys to those who make the forest use in Ixtlán de Juárez, Oaxaca.

Project evaluation indicators

In order to determine the profitability of the forestry integrating company, the methodology of project evaluation that calculates the return of the investment in terms of the net present value (NPV), the internal rate of return (IRR) and the minimum acceptable performance rate (MAPR).

Net present value (NPV)

This indicator was determined according to ^{Baca (2010)}, which states that the net present value is defined as the sum of the updated annual net flows minus the initial investment. This evaluation indicator represents the value of the current money that will be reported in the project in the future, at an interest rate and a certain period. The NPV was determined from the expression:

Where: A= initial investment; Qi= i period net flow; K= discount rate or MAPR; n= duration of the project in years.

The discount rate represents the interest rate at which future values are updated to the present. A significant value occurs for NPV= 0 and represents that the project meets the investor’s requirements; that is, it is the best alternative in the market at that time.

The criteria for decision making were:

VAN> 0, the project is profitable

VAN= 0, to perform it is indifferent

VAN< 0, the project is not profitable

Results

The results obtained when evaluating the investment project of pine wood, it was determined that the initial investment of the sawmill required to work is 22 015 174.83, and is shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Initial investment Budget of the integrating pine harvesting company with information obtained in 2015. 

Annual cost budget

The costs necessary for the forest management company to properly manage for a year are $ 3 580 085.43 and are detailed in Table 2.

Table 2 Annual costs for the operation of the integrating company of pine wood utilization. 

Annual production

According to the information obtained in the integrating company of Ixtlán de Juárez, 10 types of lumber are produced in different quantities. These are shown in Table 3.

Table 3 Annual production of sawn timber from the integrating company of Ixtlán de Juárez. 

Annual income

Table 4 shows the total annual sales of the different types of sawnwood produced in this company.

Table 4 Annual revenues from the sale of timber in the integrated pine harvesting company. 

Table 5 shows the annual revenues from the sale of forest wood and roundwood and other by-products made by the company in the forest.

Table 5 Annual sales of wood in forest and other income of the integrating company of pine and oak harvesting. 

Table 6, lists annual revenues from sales of assets and other income generated by the company.

Table 6 Other annual income of the integrating companyof pine wood utilization. 

Table 7 shows the results obtained when performing the financial analysis by the NPV method with each financial indicators.

Table 7 Financial indicators of the integrated pine logging company. 

Discussion

The net present value is $481 952.40 is low compared to the ^{Cortés y Torres (2013)} study that found NPV values of $ 21 000 000, this because the company they evaluated produces and sells the triple of wood than in this study however for being an integrating company its NPV value is acceptable. However, it is similar to the study by ^{Flores (2004)}, who evaluated the Zamorano sawmill located in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in the production of machimbre (a major tertiary product of the timber industry. An edge with a projecting tab or rib that is embedded in another piece, the other side of the piece has a slot where the tongue engages) who found a similar value (325 0670) to that of the integrating company under study.

The TIR was 33% and is acceptable compared to the FIRA study (2007), which obtained an TIR of 57% because the profitability evaluation was in the states of Durango and Chihuahua; considering that the extraction is in 12.1 ha. And the wood extraction is 676.9 m³ and in Ixtlán de Juárez it is 434.3 m³ in addition the market is bigger because they are two states. The TIR value found in this study is similar to that found by ^{Flores (2004)}, in a small machimbre production sawmil, in Tegucigalpa Honduras.

In the evaluation of the profitability it was determined that the company of Ixtlán de Juárez, Oaxaca is strategically in an attractive position and high competitiveness, since it has the raw material and an organization of integrated company. But it is necessary to focus their efforts and strategies towards the reorganization and improvement of their internal activities. In addition, the company must formulate an efficient market plan focused on the generic strategy to leverage the competitive strengths of the business as recommended (^{Mollins, 2004}).

According to ^{Rodríguez and Fernández, (2008)}, Mexican integrating companies are a figure inspired by European associationism, but unfortunately they lack of a fiscal program of their own unlike their European counterparts and also present inconsistencies in their concepts, generating confusion in their understanding and due to all that they are not successful in Mexico. However, the integrating company of Ixtlán de Juárez, Oaxaca, according to the surveys carried out and the financial evaluation made indicate that it is successful and satisfies the demands of wood at the local level.

Conclusions

It was found that during the useful life of the project at an updating rate of 31%, a net profit of $481 952.40 pesos will be obtained. With respect to the benefit/cost ratio to an update of 31%, for each peso invested there will be 1.01 cents of benefits. During the life of the project and according to the results of the IRR, the investment is recovered and an average return of 33% is obtained. The results found in the financial analysis reflect that this project is viable in all its aspects and that forestry as an integrated company is subject to a series of market distortions that are manifested in values that have an impact on the profitability and competitiveness of pine wood. According to the financial study the company of Ixtlán de Juárez besides being profitable is successful as an integrating company.