About 45 minutes by road north of Mexico City, a series of huge grey-brick warehouses sits on a piece of land that, just a couple of years ago, was little more than scrub-covered hills surrounded by the capital’s poor and sprawling suburbs.

Each of the warehouses carries the name of a large company: Palacio de Hierro, the Mexican retailer, Mattel, the toy manufacturer, Kraft, the foods group, Dupont, the chemicals company and McGraw Hill, the publisher.