Ponce Candy Industries was a multi-national manufacturer of

confectionary Confectionery is the Art (skill), art of making confections, which are food items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates. Exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confectionery is divided into two broad and somewhat overlappi ...

sweets based in

Ponce, Puerto Rico Ponce (, , , ) is both a city and a municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government. Ponce, Puerto Rico's most populated city outside the San Juan metropolitan area, was founded on 12 August 1 ...

, best known for its "Fiesta" brand of candy products. The company was founded in 1940 by Juan Eugenio Mayoral Renovales, Jorge Martín and Rafael Pou. It later expanded into

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

in 1946 as "Fiesta C.A.", and into

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

in 1965 as Fiesta Colombina S.L.U. The company's Ponce facility closed in 2002, but continued operating in Spain. The company's last remaining manufacturing plant in Spain became insolvent on 22 September 2014, and went into liquidation, seeking a buyer. The company's 1940s

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

building on

PR-1 Puerto Rico Highway 1 (PR-1) is a highway in Puerto Rico that connects the city of Ponce to San Juan. Leaving Ponce, the road heads east and follows a somewhat parallel route along the southern coast of the island heading towards Salinas. At S ...

Barrio Sabanetas Sabanetas (''Barrio Sabanetas'') is one of the 31 barrios of the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico. Along with Magueyes, Tibes, Portugués Rural, Portugués, Montes Llanos, Machuelo Arriba, Maragüez, and Cerrillos (Ponce), Cerrillos, Sabanetas ...

in Ponce is now owned by

Caribbean University Caribbean University is a private university, private university system in Puerto Rico composed of four campuses. History It was founded on February 28, 1969, as the Caribbean Junior College in the municipality of Bayamon, Puerto Rico, Bayamon. ...

who, in 2002 and in coordination with the Ponce Municipal Government, had plans to convert the facility into a candy museum.

History

The company was founded in Ponce, Puerto Rico, in 1940. It made candy from sugar obtained from sugar cane at the nearby

Central Mercedita Hacienda Mercedita was a sugarcane plantation in Ponce, Puerto Rico, founded in 1861, by Juan Serrallés Colón. Today Hacienda Mercedita no longer grows sugarcane and its lands are instead used for growing mangoes, grasses, landscape plants a ...

, also in Ponce. In the 1950s, a marketing company proposes the name "Fiesta" to the Ponce Candy management, and Ponce Candy industries starts manufacturing its products under that name. At the same time, the company opens operations in

under the name "Fiesta C.A.". The same year, the company started manufacturing

lollipops A lollipop is a type of sugar candy usually consisting of hard candy mounted on a stick and intended for sucking or licking. Different informal terms are used in different places, including lolly, sucker, sticky-pop, etc. Lollipops are availa ...

. In 1965 the company opens operations in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

at Alcalá de Henares, as "Fiesta, S.A.". In the 1970s, the company experimented with a new lollipop that had candy stuffed with

bubble gum Bubble gum or bubblegum is a type of chewing gum, designed to be inflated out of the mouth as a bubble. Bubble gum flavor While there is a bubble gum "flavor" – which various artificial flavorings including esters are mixed to obtain – it ...

and started marketing them in

. It named this bubble gum-stuffed lollipop "

Kojak ''Kojak'' is an American action crime drama television series starring Telly Savalas as the title character, New York City Police Department Detective Lieutenant Theodopolis "Theo" Kojak. Taking the time slot of the popular ''Cannon'' series, it ...

", after the movie character. It became a huge success. It would eventually be manufactured in Ponce and Venezuela under the Fiesta name. The bubble gum-filled lollipop began to be manufactured in Puerto Rico by for the prestigious U.S. based Charms Company. In 1984, the "Fresquito" made its debut. It consisted of a candy on a stick sprinkled with hot flavoring.

Company profile

The company had over 300 employees in Ponce, and more than 130 in Spain. The company manufactured in Puerto Rico, Spain, and Venezuela, but sold in those as well as other countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States. In Spain alone, the company had a distribution network with over 40,000 retail outlets. In 2014, the company had a sales portfolio of 18.8 million

euros The euro (symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . T ...

Liquidation

The 2014 sale of the company sought to execute two sales: on for the company itself (products, brand names, distribution network, manufacturing and production rights, etc.) and the physical facilities consisting of 26,800 m2 of space. The first was valued at 12 million

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

s and the later at 6.7 million euros. Over 50 companies have shown interest in the sale, including some with the backing of

KPMG KPMG International Limited (or simply KPMG) is a multinational professional services network, and one of the Big Four accounting organizations. Headquartered in Amstelveen, Netherlands, although incorporated in London, England, KPMG is a net ...

PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...

Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of profession ...

and

Ernst & Young Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewaterh ...

. In a "first-of-its-kind", the sale is being done via online purchase proposals; the court-appointed liquidator assures this provides transparency and fairness.

Popular culture

Fiesta jelly beans and sticky swirl candies were used in scenes of the extraterrestrial TV series "V".''Fiesta busca otra oportunidad: El administrador concursal inicia la venta de la popular empresa de caramelos.''
Miguel Angel Garcia Vega. El Pais. Ediciones El Pais S.L. Madrid, Spain. 31 January 2015. Accessed 16 March 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ponce Candy Industries Companies based in Ponce, Puerto Rico Food and drink companies established in 1940 1940 establishments in Puerto Rico Privately held companies of Puerto Rico Puerto Rican brands Food and drink companies of Puerto Rico Multinational companies headquartered in Puerto Rico