Notable Product Manufacturers of Latin America

When you live in Latin America, you do notice that certain brands and product manufacturers from the US or other similar countries have a strong presence in the region.

Like Whirlpool for example.

Having said that, it should be acknowledged briefly that obviously Latin America has its own giants regionally that are solid product manufacturers for the region.

As you can guess already, countries that are bigger and with bigger economies like Mexico are better at producing those regional giants.

So then begs the question: who are some notable product manufacturers in Latin America that you are likely to hear about when living down here?

Of course, this article won't necessarily include all of them given how big the region is and all the many countries that have their own product manufacturers of various items.

If you wish, mention any that come to mind in the comment section of this article and I'll include it in this article afterwards.

Above all, this is just a brief topic to cover for those curious about life in Latin America.

In this case, what specific type of product manufacturers you might notice repeatedly over time down here.

I'll throw in some personal experiences with the topic and then casually mention some other product manufacturers you might notice depending on the country you are in.

Let's get to it.

BIMBO

I've had mixed luck with this company over the years.

Well, mostly OK luck.

This is a Mexican company that sells bread and other types of bakeries.

If you walk into an OXXO, I'd imagine you'd find their products easily enough.

Which, for those who don't know, OXXO is a major convenience store that you find all around Mexico selling snacks, drinks, toilet paper, liquor, etc.

Anyway, I remember one day in particular where I walked into an OXXO and bought some bread.

Looking back at it, I'm pretty sure it was BIMBO.

And I got home.

Found out the bread had mold on it.

To be fair to BIMBO, the bread basically never has mold on it.

Maybe it was the fault of that specific OXXO for not taking care of their products, selling them on time before the expiration date or whatever.

Anyway, I've normally always found them fine for buying bread.

And, when it comes to Latin American product manufacturers, BIMBO really is top of the market for what they do.

You'll find their products in so many Latin American countries and not just Mexico.

As you can see here, they even bought their main competitor in Argentina known as Fargo.

Also, as you can see here and here, BIMBO owns Barcel (which sells Takis).

Here's a video anyway showing some of their products for those curious.

Corona

Everybody from the US knows what Corona is.

Do I need to explain it to you?

A beer from Mexico that you can find not just in Mexico but quite a few Latin American countries.

Oddly enough though, at least here in Mexico City, I don't see Corona as much as what Americans back home might expect.

I do see a lot of Indio, Tecate, etc.

Not saying Corona doesn't exist but plenty of places but it's not literally on every corner as an American who has never been to Mexico would imagine.

At any rate, similar to BIMBO, it's another classic example of the Mexican dominance with product manufacturing within Latin America as it's not a hard beer to find in other countries in the region.

FEMSA

Sticking to our Mexican theme here, FEMSA is a multinational Mexican beverage and retail company that is from Monterrey, Mexico.

It also operates the largest independent Coca-Cola bottling group in the world, owns the largest convenience store chain in Mexico, is the second largest shareholder of Heineken N.V. and also had a reported revenue of $26.9 billion dollars for 2019.

All that information and more that I got from Wikipedia here to be honest.

Interesting enough, just like BIMBO, FEMSA has also acquired other competitors in the region like when it acquired VONPAR in Brazil as you can read here. 

At any rate, FEMSA is another example like BIMBO that is a classic example of a giant product manufacturer from Latin America.

Let's move on.

Other Product Manufacturers in Latin America

To be fair, it's not just Mexico kicking ass and taking names down here.

I live in Mexico and am more familiar with the country but there are some other examples we could mention briefly.

For example, as you can see here, Coca Cola in Central America is manufactured by ABinBev.

For Colombia, we have a company called Haceb that manufacturers heating, domestic and commercial refrigeration but, as you can see here, a lot of their products appear as Whirlpool.

Second, we have Arcor from Argentina that produces sweets as you can see here.

Third, we have Brahma from Brazil that produces beer and, as you can see here, even beat the most popular Argentine beer brand known as Quilmes (which, from what I remember in my days in Argentina, tastes like shit).

Fourth, we have Havanna Dulce de Leche that is popular that you can see here.

Fifth, we have Colombina that produces sweets too.

Sixth, we have Dos Pinos Dairy from Costa Rica.

Seventh, we have Diana Snacks from El Salvador.

Eighth, we have Cencosud/Jumbo from Chile.

Ninth, we have IMUSA from Colombia.

Anything to Add?

If you have anything to add, drop a comment below.

Any other popular product manufacturers from the region?

I'm sure there's plenty as we only covered a few here that are more noticeable among those living in the region.

And follow my Twitter here.

Thanks for reading.

Best regards,

Matt