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The confidence, intelligence, beauty and charisma of Elena Villarreal position her as one of the most exemplary and powerful women in the business world in Mexico. Know the story of this woman, Mexican, brave and successful.
Elena Villarreal is a Mexican worthy of admiration.
Honestly, I’ve never seen it like this. I have always thought what a wonderful life, so beautiful I love it. And with such a good team. I live for my team. I know all of them. I have just been to Los Cabos to see some clients and had moments of great happiness, like when they came up to me and said, Oh, Mrs. Elena, today I am twenty-five years old in the business! As well as the most beautiful comments.
The beginning of a fantastic journey
I was born in San Luís Potosí, but my father was doing doctorates in the United States. And so we lived in Chicago – because he wanted to dedicate himself not so much to surgery but the administrative part of health – and he was in Northwestern. Later, we lived in Salt Lake City, and from there to Boston, he was at Harvard. And then we went to Maryland, he was at John Hopkins, and finally, the World Health Organization hired him, and that’s why we stayed to live there.
I met Pepe in Washington. He was working at the Inter-American Development Bank. He told me, We are returning to Mexico. What I want is to do business. You need someone who is an accountant because at that moment I told him, You know what going back I help you, because look, I am a shark for business. I already have two years of work. What it is to be young, you swallow the sea in one go.
Very nice. What did I say? I’ll help you, my life. I swear I’ll help you. We are just going to open the business, and I sell, and I’ll buy, and I’ll do everything. He said, fine, and we were off to Chetumal. There was no direct plane. We arrived in Mérida, and from Mérida, we took a truck to get to Chetumal. As we walked in, a sign read, Population of 50,000 people. And me, how what 50,000? Where is the city? Is this what?
When you arrive with the illusion, newly married and everything looks rosy, except when the mosquitoes start to bite you, and there is nothing to do. And well, at that time, there was no internet. There was no fax. There was no phone. You had to call an operator to connect you to Washington. So I said, where did I come to fall? And well, I’ve always been one to focus on the positive, and I started to focus on seeing all the beauty. Appreciate the bay, the jungle, and the Bacalar lagoon. We would go on the jetski on full moon nights. One day I was left with the steering wheel in my hand. And Pepe, Perate but, do not move. And me, how do you want me to do it? I can’t move. It has no steering wheel or where to put or fit it.
I paid the price of learning to live in the tropics. In 1972, it was not even a Quintana Roo state. Chetumal was territory.
First, we started with a supermarket, and later we had an air cargo business. The pilots spoke English, and I spoke perfect English. So I would take the pilots to breakfast, and we loaded the plane. I had to see that the load was good to go and well here and there. And then I said, You know what I hate about this supermarket thing. And he said to me: Well, what do you like? And there was already a perfumery, and I saw them go by with the bags and bags and bags. I swear to you that, at the time, I didn’t even have enough to pay for a sixty-peso perfume. And I told him I would like a perfumery. What do you know about perfumes? Oh well, everything. You know. How dare I say everything? I mean, only what I read in the magazines, and I had worked in a department store and passed through the perfumery department. And I don’t know, but I dare to tell him everything.
I was a twenty-two-year-old girl, nobody, but nobody sold me. They told me I could upset my client because of this little girl who doesn’t know anything. But how can I not know anything? Look, I swear I know. I would sit in the airport and wait for the suppliers to get off the plane to go home because there was no way they would see me. No, no, and no, because Efraín monopolized them and wouldn’t let them. I didn’t release them, and then, there I went. A whole year passed, two years passed, and at the same time, we had the cargo plane that came from Panama to deposit three thousand pounds of cargo. So, I told Pepe, let’s go to Panama to see if there is someone who wants to sell me. I did not know that it was forbidden to sell in other markets. They unloaded me pure crap from all the perfumes that didn’t sell. But I said, at least I will have something to sell.
So it was. I arrived all excited with my perfumes, when a lady told me, your perfumery is very beautiful; it’s a shame you don’t have anything.
Ultrafemme, the power of a vision
I told Pepe we are to open a perfumery. Okay, he says.
One day like this on the garden deck, with my little boy. He says, hey, I need the name for the store right now because I have to register it. How now? Let me think about it. No, no, no, right now. I told him, well, it’s called Ultrafemme. It was like thinking that all women who felt ultra-feminine once they entered my store were pretty, very feminine, and self-sufficient. I was going to have all women working. I said I’m going to hire good-looking girls, and I am going to help them, I’m going to give them a career. Long before the time of empowerment, I was already empowering my girls.
It was the only store with air conditioning, music, and more. I started selling underwear, then the watches arrived. And then, because no one would sell me cosmetics, I was advised to go to Cancun. Wich was growing back in 1975.
I opened my first store in Cancún in 1979. Right in the location where I wanted, in front of the Municipal Palace.
Ultrafemme today
We had 100 stores before the pandemic. I don’t know exactly how many we closed there with COVID. About ninety left. They are not all perfumery and are different brands. We have stores in Mexico, in Monterrey, in Guadalajara, we have in Cabo. We have several throughout the Republic. We are more than 700 collaborators, but unfortunately, we had to let go of 300 with the pandemic.
How did you achieve your dream?
It’s something I’ve done every day. Yes, one day I thought, I will have my shopping center and gather my brands, because I can’t be scattered everywhere. Years ago, in Canada, I saw a beautiful modular store surrounded by boutiques, perfumes, and jewelry. It was there where I said, one day, this is what I want.
How would you like to be remembered?
As someone who created something good. Something exquisite and in an honest way.
I didn’t do it with stolen money. I didn’t do it with inherited money or from shady sources.
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Ultrafemme.
