Procesadora Campofresco, Inc.
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[edit] History
Procesadora Campofresco, Incorporated was founded in Puerto Rico in 1982 by its current President, Julio F. Méndez Muñoz (a Cuban immigrant) with the goal of introducing exotic juices and beverages to the North American and European markets, including passion fruit, tamarind and guava under its main brand-name Caribik Sun®.
In 1985, Venezuelan immigrant Carlos Carrillo joined the company as partner and Sales & Marketing Vice President. That year, Campofresco became the first company to introduce a complete line of tropical frozen concentrates in its unique recyclable plastic bottles with dutifully registered trade-images.
Four years later, Campofresco became the first Caribbean fruit processing company to introduce a line of tropical juices and beverages to European markets under the Caribik Sun® brand.
In 1990, Campofresco exhibited its consumer products in the two most important food shows of the Northern Hemisphere: Anuga in Cologne/Germany and the FMI in Chicago/USA, being the first Puerto Rican company to participate in these.
The following year, Campofresco inaugurated its new agroindustrial plant, the largest and most modern in the Caribbean, located on a 30-acre lot (12.5 ha) in the town of Santa Isabel, Southern Puerto Rico.
In 1992, Campofresco was the first company to introduce passion fruit to the sophisticated and demanding Japanese market: the Karibenokajitsu® brand of passion fruit carbonated beverage. That same year, citrus and pineapple processing facilities were incorporated at the plant.
Between 1992 and 1994, Campofresco developed the Alipak® system in a joint co-operation with E. I. DuPont de Nemours, Inc.'s subsidiary DuPont Canada. Alipak® is a unique packaging system for hot-filling shelf stable foods into special films, thus requiring no subsequent refrigeration. Campofresco became a DuPont authorized exclusive agent and marketer of the Alipak® Technology.
In 1993, Campofresco initiated the re-opening and co-operation of the grapefruit processing industry in Dominica, Caribbean West Indies, for the production of white-grapefruit concentrate and products. The following year, Campofresco's Technology Department for the development and manufacturing of super concentrated bases for low-cost, juice-like, fruit-juice beverages, was inaugurated.
In 1995, Campofresco became the first independent and approved company by Procter & Gamble to produce their food-products Sunny Delight® and Hawaiian Punch®, and the first Puerto Rican company to export technology and food-products to South America and Eastern Europe.
In 1996, Campofresco began the privatization process of Lotus® Pineapple Program
from the Government of Puerto Rico, and began expansion to 130,000 square foot to become the most modern state-of-the-art fruit processing facility in the entire Caribbean.
In 1997, Campofresco acquired the former General Foods' juice brands Orange Plus®, Awake® and TreeSweet® (and related operations) to strengthen its position as an efficient juice and fruit-products agroindustrial leader.
In 2005, Campofresco announced that it will start producing Pepsi Americas products, starting by Gatorade for the caribbean. Campofresco also starded another expansion in which it will provide Australian-based Amcor rented space to begin manufacturing PET bottles, one of those will be the bottles for the Gatorade line that Campofresco produces. Campofresco will also make another building for additional storage space.
