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| The decade of 1950's |
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| As mentioned earlier, the Costa Rican Cocoa Products began with the clear mission to industrialize the national of cocoa beans in Costa Rica. In order to make this happen the founders acquired the Harrick's company with its products and chocolate drinks naming it The Costa Rican Cocoa Products. The production of cocoa powder begins, as well as the making of chocolate coating for the industry. Also the first exports of cocoa butter are sent to Colombia and the United States. |
| The decade of 1960's |
| For the 1960's the company mission was: "To expand operations to Central America." In order to reach this goal they built bigger and more modern plant in Zapote where they could start the chocolate bar production. They expanded their distribution by opening distribution facilities in different countries of Central America. |
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The decade of 1970's |
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The mission for the 1970's was key to the development of the company since it was defined as "Product diversification and vertical integration." For this, the Ruiz family acquired cocoa farms from which they could produce their own chocolate. Later they realized that it was more profitable to import the raw materials. Then in 1977, the distributor company, Diasa was founded. This was a major breakthrough since they were able to develop their own sales force and distribute the product all over the country. Also during the seventies, as sales increased the owners saw the need for the automation of the line of "chocolates bañados", and bought new machinery to start manufacturing the Perugina candy. |
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The decade of 1990's
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In the second half of the 1990's there was a shift in the vision of the company. The Nestle Company which had acquired Perugina of Italy in 1988, made an offer to buy the plant that Costa Rican Cocoa had in Heredia along with its consumer market product-line. The Ruiz family saw this as a great opportunity to concentrate their efforts in cocoa based products at an industrial level.On December of that same year, the Nestle Company acquired the brand names of Harrick's and Perugina, along with the machinery for their production.The Costa Rican Cocoa Products vision for the second half of the decade is to diversify their industrial product-line in order to continue to fulfill the needs and wants of the national industry and penetrates other foreign markets at competitive levels on the basis of quality and price.The company currently exports its products to all of Central America, the United States, Mexico and Sweden. |
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Location |
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The plant and its facilities are located in Zapote in the outskirts of San José, the capital of Costa Rica. The population of San José is around 2.000.000, where the total population of the country is approximately 3 million. The climate of the region is quite mild where in the summer is warmer and in the winter there are sunny mornings and rainy afternoons. |
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Mission Statement |
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The overall mission statement of the company is: "To build an entity that is able to respond and fulfill the specific needs and wants of its customers in such a way that they talk about its excellent service. One that will ensure that the resources are wisely invested in the areas where they will cause more impact and at the same time where it will yield the highest return. Our organization will always be better tomorrow than what it is today. It will promote and instill the capability of innovation in each individual in the organization by empowering them to take quick decisions and be able to respond as if they were the owners of the company." |
