La Costea (food company)

ing 105-gram cans, moreover the distribution inside the

country began. By 1971 the factory moved to Ecatepec
with a facility of 180,00 square meters. Since then this
facility has increased by 70 thousand square meters.[2]
In 1975 the company entered the U.S. market. The company continued growing and by 1991 it had founded a new
production plant in Sonora for the production of ketchup,
vegetables, and more. In 1994 a new plant was built in
San Luis Potosi . In 2006 a new project about a completely automatic plant began; this new plant will work
with robots; this creation represents a better and faster
production with more quality.[2]
La Costea logo

Conservas La Costea, usually called La Costea, is

a Mexican brand dedicated to the canned products market. It was founded in 1923 by Vicente Lpez Recines.
The company has become an important brand inside and
outside Mexico. Nowadays, La Costea sells its products
across Mexico and in 40 countries around the world. In
spite of the fact that its products in the beginning were
chilies, the company began producing new products such
as beans, ketchup, vegetables and others. The production
plants have been modied also, in addition there is the
fact that the factories have won some recognitions for the
changes in technology and process.[1] The brand was introduced to the United States by Latin American people,
however nowadays the brand is known by a big part of the
population. Now the company is managed by the heirs of
Vicente Lpez Resines.

2 Distribution
Since its creation, La Costeas market share and reach
have been core business interests; as a result, the territory served by the company has continued to grow. Inside
Mexico, La Costea products are sold by small and large
shops in every state. To service them, there are thirty
distribution centers located in key cities throughout Mexico. There are also two international distribution centers,
one each serving the United States (and Canada) and Europe; products are also sold by independent and chain
groceries throughout the world. There are three Mexican production plants (in Estado de Mexico, San Luis
Potosi and Guasave[3] ) creating the brands products for
the various distribution centers.[2] The distribution centers are located in Yucatn, Tabasco, Chiapas, Oaxaca,
Veracruz, Puebla, Acapulco, Estado de Mxico, Hidalgo,
Morelos (three), Queretaro, Guanajuato, San Luis Potos,
Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Nuevo Len, Durango, Torren,
Tamaulipas, Sonora, Sinaloa, Chihuahua (two), Baja California Norte and Baja California Sur.

History

La Costea was founded in 1923 by Vicente Lpez

Recines. He bought a little grocery shop called La
Costea where he began preparing chili peppers in vinegar. He packaged and sold chilies in 20-kilogram jars
with alcohol so that they could last longer. By 1937
Lpez decided to make his own jar company; this decision changed the business. In 1948, he founded the principal factory in Mexico City. It has an area of ve thousand square meters. The new production plant count with
forklift trucks and transport units; as a consequence the
business continued growing up and increasing their distribution territory. The business began its industrialization with the application of the rst automatic production
line with 3-kilogram cans in 1951. Four years later the
company installed an automatic production line to mak-

The company sells the largest variety of canned products

within Mexico. As of 2010 the company exported products to 40 countries; to manage this trade it has oces
all over the world such as those in Spain and mainland
China.[4] According to the trade paper Soy Entrepreneur,
in the same year La Costea controlled sixty-nine percent of the world chile market, with sixteen percent of its
output going to other countries.[5]
1

Products

AWARDS

sliced capsicums.

The company has a wide variety of products in dierent presentations. Their main products are chilies, beans,
tomato puree, ketchup, mayonnaise, vegetables, creams 3.6 Soups
and soups, sauces, specialties, vinegar, fruit, jams and
marmalades, portion packs, Dona Chonita, Rancherita, In the creams and soups there are a lot of presentations:
Frenchs.
corn, bean, mushrooms, asparagus, poblano chill creams.
Chicken and vegetable, lentil soups. Jalisco and Guerrero
Pozole presentations.[2]

3.1

Chilipeppers

Products include jalapeos, nachos chilies (slices of

jalapeos), jalapeos bits, serrano, serrano slices, rajas
rojas, rajas verdes, tomatillos, chipotles, chipotle bits,
carrot pieces and long chili peppers.

3.2

Beans

Another big part of the products are beans (black beans

and kidney beans). Their presentations can be as whole,
refried and shattered beans. Some of them can be also
mixed with chorizo, cheese, chipotle and pork rinds, nally the beans can be already prepared from traditional
recipes as the frijoles charros or sauce for enfrijoladas
(similar to enchiladas). However, PROFECO (special institute for the Mexican products quality) found that there
were more of sodium recommended in some canned
beans.[6]

3.3

Tomato Puree

In tomato puree products we can nd four dierent

presentations: tomato puree, condiment tomato puree,
condiment re tomato and chopped peeled tomatoes.
These tomato sauces are used to create the base for some
Mexican soups and some Mexican dishes. The presentation for the ketchup squeeze bottle, ketchup glass bottle,
ketchup style sauce. The squeezy presentation target are
kids.[2]

3.4

Mayonnaise

4 In USA
La Costea entered the international market in 1975.
Since the beginning the U.S. was its principal goal with
90% of La Costea exports going there. The USA has
a large Hispanic population, who are the principal buyers of La Costea products, however the products have
become very popular among the rest of the population
with chilies (Jalapeos, nachos, Chipotle, among others)
as the best sellers . In June 2006, La Costea established
a production plant in Arizona; the plant was built in 2001
for a Slim Fast Foods, however it has closed in 2004. The
new plant is on the Interstate 10 freeway, which also connects to Interstate 8, helping distribution to the southern
California.[7] After the economic crisis, the company has
made reduced sales in the US. Although the economy has
since improved, food companies have not yet seen any
recovery. Until March 2010 the growth was lower than
the growth in 2009. This has driven the company to the
search for new markets such as Asian markets.[8] There
had been some negative press that has aected the image
of the company in USA. In 2008 there was a problem because it was said that the products had salmonella, however the problem was resolved when the company showed
the hygiene guidelines used in the factory.[9]

5 Awards

The company has won many important prizes at national and international levels. In June it won El Premio
Nacional de Logstica 2010 (National Logistic Award
2010) for it advances in production, distribution and
lower cost; this is the second time it won it, the rst
was in 2007.[1] They also get the ISO-9002 on October
11, 2010. This price gives the recognition of standards
for quality management systems.[10] Other certicates are
ISO 22000, HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control
Points), BRC (British Retail Consortium), IFS (Interna3.5 Vegetables
tional Food Standard), SQF (Safety Quality Food), BASC
For the vegetables there are ve dierent presentations: (Business Alliance for Secure Commerce). Most of them
golden corn, peas, vegetable salads, peas with carrots, give the company worldwide recognition.[11]
In mayonnaise products there are a lot of presentations:
the mayonnaise with lemon juice in bottle and squeezy
presentation, mayonnaise dressing for salads in bottle
and squeeze bottle presentation, light mayonnaise in bottle and squeezy presentation, mayonnaise with jalapeo
in bottle and squeezy presentation and mayonnaise with
chipotle in bottle and squeezy presentation.

Charity and charitable

[12] dona La costea alimentos para damnicados chilenos

(in Spanish).

La Costea provides some of its production and prots to [13] Arranca dcima edicin del Teletn (in Spanish). Recharities and when there is a natural disaster in the countrieved 01/11/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate=
try relief helping aected people with merchandise.[12]
(help)
First, La Costea provides some of its products when
there is a natural disaster in Mexico or other countries;
for example the canned products that were donated to 8 External links
Chile after the earthquakes in 2010. Second,it also participate in charity programas, one example is the contri El sabor de la Costea
bution made annually to the Teleton event that takes place
in Mexico City.[13]
La Costea home page (In English)

References

[1] Se queda en La Costea Premio Nacional de Logsticapor segunda ocasin [La Costea stays with the national logistic award] (in Spanish). Enfsis Logstic Online. June 2010. Retrieved 01/11/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
[2] La costea [La Costea] (in Spanish). Retrieved
02/11/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
[3] nuestras plantas (in Spanish).
[4] Carrano P (October 2010). Top 10 del Marketing Gustavo Vogel [Marketin Top 10 Gustavo Vogel] (in Spanish). Neo. Retrieved 01/11/2010=. Check date values in:
|accessdate= (help)
[5] Bruch Ral. http://www.soyentrepreneur.com/home/
index.php?p=nota&idNota=1871 El Sabor de La
Costea [The avour of La Costea].
soyentrepreneur.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 02/11/2010.
Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
[6] Ramiro Alonso (3 June 2010). Profeco halla sodio de
ms en productos [Profeco found more sodium that recommended in products]. El Universal (in Spanish). Retrieved 07/11/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate=
(help)
[7] Gesbek Shane. Arizona Canning Company. Tucson.
Retrieved 05/11/2010. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
[8] Mario Maldonado (2010-05-24). Alimento mexicano,
con mermas en EUA [Mexican Food with mermas
in USA]. Milenio (in Spanish). Retrieved 05/11/2010.
Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
[9] Los parmetros de envasado de chiles, ptimos [The
chiles lling parameters, optimal]. El Universal (in Spanish). 28 July 2008. Retrieved 07/11/2010. Check date
values in: |accessdate= (help)
[10] La costea recib iso-9002 [La Costea gets ISO-9002]
(in Spanish). Mexico: El Universal, Nuestro Mundo.
March 2002.
[11] La Costena (mexico)". Chenab. Retrieved 5/11/2010.
Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)

9 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

9.1

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9.3

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