Keeping Tradition Alive Through Their Family Business
Keeping Tradition Alive Through Their Family Business
November 21, 2023 | Banu Kosar
Meet a family business in Corinto, Cauca, Colombia as they begin their journey with Building Markets. Pacific Beverages embodies the vibrancy which small businesses bring to their communities, creating jobs and benefits that span throughout the country. Hear from Juan David Balanta as he shares his family’s plan to expand Pacific Beverages with Building Markets by their side.
We are from Cauca, from one of the regions most affected by violence in Cauca: Corinto.
Our company is entirely family-owned. My mom, step-father, sister, aunts, and I can say that not only do we as a family benefit, but many more people do too.
Since our company has been around for a long time, many people are benefiting from the beverages in one way or another by selling them. I can say that we are currently part of national spaces where people are benefiting from our product. We have always been known for producing a good, quality product, and that’s what has helped us sustain ourselves despite everything that has been happening, from the pandemic to the current conflict in Tuluá.
Let me tell you a bit about Pacific Beverages. Everything we produce is based on “biche,” which is a distilled aguardiente made from sugarcane juice. Without “biche,” there are no Pacific Beverages.
I’ve always said it—we don’t just sell beverages; what we sell is tradition.
So, we aim not to let the tradition, which has been in our family for many years, fade away. I could have done something else, could have continued my studies, could have done countless things, but at the moment I decided to fully involve myself in the beverage business, I said, “I’m going to support my family.” And today, I can say, “We live off Pacific Beverages.”
For my business, my dream is firstly to uplift my family. I also dream of exporting, so that our tradition is known not only here in Colombia but in many parts of the world.
