Polar Companies

Empresas Polar is a Venezuelan industrial corporation whose productive activities cover the food, alcoholic beverages, soft drinks and mass consumption products sectors under its subsidiaries Productos Polar, Cervecería Polar, and Pepsi-Cola Venezuela.

History

Beginnings (1939-1950)

At the end of the dictatorship of General Juan Vicente Gómez in 1935, the young Caracas lawyer Lorenzo Alejandro Mendoza Fleury became the main partner of the family business "Mendoza y Compañía", which initially manufactured candles and soaps. Four years later, Mendoza Fleury had the idea of establishing a beer company with Rafael Lujan and Karl Eggers. The project involved great risks, but it began to become a reality when the ship that transported the first cooking pot from Europe managed to cross the ocean to finally arrive in Venezuela, on Christmas 1939. On March 14, 1941, the work of the new company called Cervecería Polar, with entirely Venezuelan capital, in the small Antímano plant, west of Caracas.

The initiative took its first steps until 1943, when Carlos Roubicek (1916-2004), a young Czechoslovakian brewer of Jewish religion, joined the company, who had emigrated to Ecuador after the military occupation of his country by Adolfo Hitler and Nazi Germany. Four months after joining, Roubicek raised the need to change the formula of the beer produced by the plant, based on the tastes of the public at the time, which, together with adequate advertising, quickly led it to become a popular product.

At that time, the company produced approximately 30 thousand liters of beer per month and had 50 workers, and had to face competition from 14 other brands, which was overcome both with the quality of the product and a sales team. In 1948, the first company to market Cervecería Polar products emerged under the supervision of Juan Lorenzo Mendoza Quintero, son of Mendoza Fleury.

Growth (1950-1999)

In 1950, operations began at a second brewing plant, located in Barcelona, Anzoátegui state, in the east of the country; The following year, another was added in Los Cortijos, in Caracas, complementing the production of the Antímano plant. In 1960, another brewing plant would be added in Maracaibo, to serve the west of the country.

Having by then three brewing plants in operation and corn flakes being one of the main ingredients of the beer formula devised by Roubicek, the company decided to build its own corn processing plant in Turmero, Aragua state, with the in order to replace the import of this raw material. This decision would be a decisive step in the subsequent development of the food business.

In 1951, Cervecería Polar's first non-alcoholic drink called Maltín Polar was presented.

Carlos Eduardo Stolk Mendoza, first cousin of Lorenzo Alejandro Mendoza Fleury, after having represented Venezuela in the United Nations during World War II, took office as president of Empresas Polar in 1952. His leadership contributed to a period of very strong growth. important until his retirement in 1985. Dr. Stolk was responsible for the P.A.N. Flour brand name. and the launch of this project, he took the first steps for the creation and development of Fundación Polar, among other important actions that he took for his clients, employees and shareholders.

In 1960, the corn processor began the manufacture of precooked corn flour P.A.N. Flour based on Venezuelan patent 5176 that the family business acquired from the Venezuelan mechanical engineer Luis Caballero Mejías, who invented it in 1954. the respective industrial procedure for his own company La Arepera, C.A. This launch caused the arepa, one of the typical Venezuelan dishes, to stop being produced based on ground corn, changing to corn flour., making its preparation less laborious.

Juan Lorenzo Mendoza Quintero proposed the creation of the non-profit Civil Association, called “El Puntal”, which was intended to reinforce the social action that the different facilities of the company had already been developing in their locations, both for the workers and their families as well as for the community. This would be one of his last initiatives, since Mendoza Quintero died suddenly in 1962.

Given this circumstance, his father, Lorenzo Mendoza Fleury, resumed management of the company which incorporated other products such as corn oil in 1966 and balanced animal feed in 1967, when the company's operations began Procría .

In 1969 Mendoza Fleury died and his other son, Lorenzo Alejandro Mendoza Quintero, took over the management, who left his profession as a psychiatrist. Under his leadership, the retirement plan for the company's workers was created in 1972. He also promoted the idea of building a large brewery complex in the center of the country, whose construction began on December 5, 1975 in the town of San Joaquín, Carabobo State and which began operating in 1978. Then, the Polar Foundation was created in 1977, known since 2006 as Fundación Empresas Polar, which concentrates the social action of this Venezuelan consortium and which Leonor Giménez de Mendoza, wife of Mendoza Quintero, began to preside over.

In 1985, together with the French company Casa Martell, Empresas Polar founded Bodegas Pomar, which began the commercial production of wines in Venezuela. Starting in 1986, the company ventured into the business of processing and packaging wines. rice and the following year in pasta and ice cream, having acquired the company Helados EFE. In February 1987 Lorenzo Alejandro Mendoza Quintero died and it was up to both his widow, Leonor Giménez de Mendoza, and the widow of his brother, Morella Pacheco Ramella, to take charge of running the company.

In 1991, on the 50th anniversary of the emergence of Cervecería Polar, the company was renamed "Empresas Polar". On the land where the company's first plant had operated, now defunct, the Antímano Children's Nutritional Care Center (Cania) was built, an institution that specializes in the interdisciplinary management of child malnutrition.

In 1992, Lorenzo Mendoza Giménez and Juan Lorenzo Mendoza Pacheco, members of the third generation of the Mendoza family, assumed the management of Empresas Polar. This step led to the company being started in 1993 in the soft drink production business, with the acquisition of the Golden Cup company, which until then only covered the center of the country with two small plants.

In December 1996, through the strategic alliance agreed with the international partner PepsiCo, Pepsi-Cola Venezuela C.A. emerged. because the Cisneros Organization left this mark. That year marks the beginning of food business activities in Colombia. Today it has offices in Bogotá and a plant producing pre-cooked corn flours, oats and ready-to-eat arepas, located in Facatativá, a town near the Colombian capital.

(1999) extension

The acquisition of the license to manufacture Pepsi beverages led to the construction of two large Pepsi-Cola Venezuela plants in Caucagua and Maracaibo (1999). Subsequently, it acquired the MAVESA company in 2001, and incorporated the products of the American brand Quaker Oats Company, together with its subsidiary Gatorade, in 2002, both owned today by PepsiCo.

In 2003, the company was consolidated under the name of Foods Polar and expanded its cleaning products plant in Valencia, Carabobo state, in 2009. That year, the Empresas Polar Sports Development Center was inaugurated, in San Joaquín, where children and young people practice various sports disciplines in an organized way.

Finally in 2010, Productos Polar joined forces with the Leche Pascual Group, from Spain, installing a yogurt plant in Valencia that produces the Migurt product line.

In 2012 the Placeres Maestros collection of premium Solera beer was born with the incorporation of Solera Märzen (Marzenbier type beer). Later, in 2016, the Solera Black (Schwarzbier) and Solera ALT (Altbier) beers were launched under this same collection. Finally, in 2018, the India Pale Ale type beer was launched for the first time on the Venezuelan market with the name Solera IPA.

Formation of Polar Companies

• Polar brewery: Manufactures non-alcoholic beers and drinks from malt. Its main products are the Polar Beer in its different versions and the Polar Maltin malt.

• Bodegas Pomar: specializes in the production of wines and sangrías from own vineyards.

• Polar Foods: It includes different industrial plants such as rice, oats and corn processors, the latter in the forms of precooked flour and oil, pasta factories, margarines, vinegars, mayonnaise, sauces, seafood processors, jams, chiccolate beverage, ice cream, animal balanced foods, soaps, detergents and softeners.

• PepsiCo Venezuela: It is the group responsible for the production of gaseous drinks, juices, cold tea, mineral water, sports drinks, energy drinks and slightly gasified.

Empresas Polar has 28 plants and 191 agencies, branches and distribution centers in Venezuela, a food production plant in Colombia and another malt and bread flour plant in the United States. The organization's products are also marketed in other countries in America, the Caribbean and Europe.

Products

Food

The products are made by the subsidiary Food Polar

• Precocidal Harinas de Maíz: flour P.A.N. and Harina Mazorca
• Pasta Primor and Great Lady
• Arroz Primor and Corina
• Rice cream Primor
• Margarinas Mavesa, Golden Mavesa (before called Golden Suave), Mavesa Ligera, Chiffon and Nelly
• Industrial margarine Chef
• Corn oil Mazeite
• Tuna Margarita and California
• Sardinas Margarita
• Vinegar Mavesa
• Tomato products Pampero
  • Ketchup
  • Tomato paste
  • I got tomatoes.
  • Tomato juice
  • Pasta sauces (bolognese, Neapolitan and complete)
  • Calcium tomato-based salt and low calories
• Untable Founded Cheese Rikesa
  • Original Cheddar
  • Cheddar with Tocineta
  • White
  • Cheddar with Parmesano
• Mayonesa Mavesa
• Light mayonnaise Mavesa Ligera
• Achocolated drink Toddy
• Merengada y Fresca Chicha Quaker
• Avena Quaker (with license from Quaker Oats Company)
• EFE Helmets
• Yogurt MiGurt
• Gellions Golden
• Mix of cachapas Cachapas P.A.N.
• Mermeladas The Viennese
• Dog food SuperCan and Dogourmet
• Horse food Galope

Drinks

Beer and Malta

The products are made by the subsidiary Cerveceria Polar

• Polar Pilsen
• Polar Ice
• Polar Zero
• Polar Light
• Solera
  • Green (original)
  • Blue (light)
  • Märzen
  • IPA
  • Kriek
• Polar Maltese
• Polaroid Light

Wines

The products are made by the subsidiary Cerveceria Polar

• Pomar Frizzante
• Pomar Syrah
• Pomar Tempranillo
• Pomar Sauvignon
• Pomar Petit Verdot
• Pomar Reserva Tinto
• Pomar Brut
• Pomar Brut Nature
• Pomar Demi-Sec
• Pomar Brut Rosé
• Pomar Brut Special edition
• Pomar Terracota Blanco
• Pomar Terracota Tinto
• Sangría Caroreña

Soft drinks

The products are made by the subsidiary Pepsi-Cola Venezuela, under PepsiCo license

• Pepsi
• Pepsi Light
• Pepsi Max
• 7 Up
• 7up Light
• Sabores Golden (Kolita, Uva, Naranja, Manzanita and Piña)

Other drinks

• Gatorade
• H2Oh 7up
• Mineral water Minalba
• Gasified mineral water Minalba Sparkling
• Water with artificial flavors Minalba Flavor
• Juices Yukery
• Juices Yuky-Pak
• Club Soda and Aguakina Evervess
• Cold tea Lipton Ice Tea (Liquid and powdered; licensed by Unilever)

Cleaning products

• Blue soap The Keys (with beef aromas, meadow and country flowers)
• Detergent The Keys (with lemon aromas, drink and fresh breeze)
• Washing machine in cream The Keys
• Detergent Diamond
• Washing machine in cream Diamond

Discontinued products

Drinks

• Vox (beer with lemon aroma).
• Pepsi Twist (pepsi with lemon flavor, released only in Zulia)
• Polar Maltese Frussion (meat with peach flavor).
• Polar Maltese Dynamic Mantekado and Volcanic Chokolate.
• Black beer Bock (laughs) Black Polar)
• Solera Beer Black (negra)
• Solera Beer ALT

Food

• Margarines: Regia and Adora
• Nelly mayonnaise ready
• Mayonesa Dorada
• Food line The Gold Tower (mayoness, pink sauce, mustard cream, English sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, kétchup)
• Harina de Maíz Soon, Ricarepa
• Maize Oil Primicia.
• Arroz Corina
• Mix for Grain Cachapas

Sponsorship

Sports

This company is the official sponsor of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League and the eight teams that make it up, Águilas del Zulia, Cardenales de Lara, Tigres de Aragua, Leones del Caracas, Tiburones de La Guaira, Navegantes del Magallanes, Bravos de Margarita and Caribes de Anzoátegui. Additionally, the trophy bears the name of the company. It also sponsors more than half of the soccer teams in the Venezuelan First Division and the Venezuelan soccer team, as well as Venezuelan basketball teams.

Culture

En cultura holds the Pepsi Music Venezuela Awards (PPM), an annual awards ceremony for the best of music in Venezuela, and which is organized by Pepsi-Cola Venezuela. Its first edition took place on March 29, 2012 in Caracas, and to this day they continue to hold this awards ceremony in support of the Venezuelan musical genre.

Scientific Award

Since 1982 and every 2 years, the Empresas Polar Foundation has awarded the Lorenzo Mendoza Fleury Prize to the career of Venezuelan scientists who are considered outstanding.

Although the award is designed, coordinated and financed by Fundación Empresas Polar, it is the Venezuelan scientific community itself that is in charge of proposing, evaluating and selecting the candidates.