The leading Dominican ice cream manufacturer, Helados Bon announced it will invest US$6 million to build a new plant to meet the growing demand. The company is now under the Grupo Nutresa of Colombia. The company founded by the Moreno family years ago on a Mother’s Day is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Luis Fernando Enciso, general manager of the company, Jesus Moreno, director of the Board of directors, Carolina Pantaleon, director of Marketing and New businesses and Enver Lopez Milander, public relations advisor met with the CDN and El Caribe media group for the occasion.
Enciso spoke about how he marvels at the rapid recovery of the Dominican Republic after Covid-19. “Sometimes I say it is the Dominican mystery. How does this country recover so quickly and manage the circumstances?, asks Enciso Prieto, who is from Colombia.
In 2011, Helados Bon was acquired by Grupo Nutresa, which obtained 81% of its shares and strengthened the processes to continue promoting a business model based on its people, talent, innovation, commitment and sustainable development. Dominican values continue to be at the forefront of the operation.
Bon’s general manager emphasized that the Dominican Republic is a very well located country in the Caribbean and that the company takes great advantage of this platform. “We are exporting to eight countries. In the Caricom treaty we have a good advantage and that has allowed us to enter other countries,” he said.
Enciso Prieto assures that 50 years after Don Alfonso Moreno had the initiative to create Bon, the mission remains intact and has been strengthened. “I think that is one of the essential elements, which makes us proud, motivates us, drives us and challenges us every day to do better things. It connects that higher purpose that he defined in his own way, half a century ago,” said the business executive in the conversation with the El Caribe media group.
And he added: “This link has been fortunate for Grupo Nutresa and for Helados Bon, because Don Alfonso’s philosophy, which his children later continued, connects with Nutresa’s global values, which is an essential part. Sometimes in these alliances, let’s say, this part of the meaning and values of the business is not taken into account, merely the economic part. And when this is the case, it is relatively easy to lose that structure, those ideas, those values, that a family company had to more corporate issues,” he acknowledged. He said this has not been the case in Bon, where there has been ample opportunity to keep the founding values and ideas of Mr. Alfonso (…)”.
He recalled that Bon was born as a source of support to the country and the people, and that the company has it within its philosophy.
“This has helped to keep those values that were identified when the study process of Helados Bon and the flirting were carried out. Because we must say that the companies had been flirting for many years (laughs), until finally a marriage took place,” recalled the general manager of the brand, referring to the operation that culminated with the acquisition by Nutresa of most of the shares of Bon.
From his point of view, Helados Bon is a Dominican company; it is a country brand and a country pride. He pointed out its essence has not changed in substance.
“It seemed impossible to achieve what Helados Bon is today, but it was dreamed and it was achieved. Many people contributed, it was a union of effort,” recalls Jesús Moreno, as he reviews the years in which the project began to take its first steps. Steps that have grown as time has gone by. Moreno’s satisfaction is evident in each of his expressions. “It has been worthwhile to continue doing everything that Dad dreamed of and worked for,” he says, bringing to the stage of the conversation the memories of Don Alfonso, Bon’s ideologist and founder.
“The important and beautiful thing about this is that young people can take advantage of our experience and benefit from our mistakes and successes. People are afraid of mistakes, but mistakes are the challenges that help us to reflect (…),” he says.
Helados Bon is a company with a long tradition, one of those that come to be considered “heritage of the people.”
It was founded by the Moreno family in 1972, as a small company that bet on quality, standing out for imprinting on its products what they called “a touch of flavor and special joy,” a concept that broke with the established formats of that time. The business started with RD$6,000 that Don Alfonso Moreno borrowed from a local bank.
Tradition, quality and capacity to strengthen an innovative business model were the qualities that allowed in almost half a century to reach all regions of the Dominican Republic, becoming a company of great admiration in the country.
In the early 80’s, from a small family business it transcended to a franchised business model, and became a brand that developed and inspired hundreds of Dominican entrepreneurs, transforming them into small business people who currently have access to receive the experience of having their own business and operate with the highest quality standards.
The visionary and innovative thinking of its founders allowed them to create impact projects for the social and environmental development of the Dominican Republic, becoming one of the preferred and most beloved brands in the country.
When the company negotiated the sale, it did not fire employees and only those who wanted to leave the company have left. The staff is still there and that is part of the brand’s values.
“We have franchisees who today not only learn to sell ice cream, but also learn to be entrepreneurs (…). This is called making a country inclusive through a business model like the one we have had,” he added.
“Our policy is never to promote the purchase of land from the small farmers who supply us, but to help them stay. And today a large part of them have stayed… ranchers who have become macadamia suppliers,” says Jesús Moreno.
He mentioned the organic coffee producers of Loma Quita Espuela, who got involved to be taken to an organic certification; fruit producers (such as coconut, mango, tamarind, strawberry and grape of Neiba). All have been included in the company’s purchasing programs.
Jesús Moreno explained that over the years, ice cream flavors that have become sustainable projects have coincided. The first of these came two years after his father died in 1997. By then came the macadamia ice cream, in 1999 came the organic chocolate ice cream and shortly after 2000 the organic coffee ice cream.
In these 50 years of business development, Bon has basically moved with a franchise model (it is 100% a franchised model). “It means that this family business inspired many young people have been able to get involved in this business. Today we have around 175 franchisees, with 320 galleries nationwide, calculates Carolina Pantaleón, director of Marketing and New Business.
“Our distribution impacts all regions, all points of the national geography and this year we have a strategy to penetrate more, to reach out to smaller towns, so that they can enjoy all the flavor and joy that Helados Bon brings to Dominican families. In this sense, we have impacted various areas of the economy and we have developed multiple products with social and environmental impact,” said Pantaleón.
Bon has more than 80 products with presence in markets in the following Caribbean countries: Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, Antigua, St. Kitts, St. Marteen, Aruba, Turks & Caicos Islands, and the most recent incursion in New York, United States.
Bon is immersed in a broad program of social responsibility. It is a founding member of the Loma Quita Espuela Foundation, of the Volunteer Program that supports the Food Bank and participates in environmental programs and environmental education for schools. Bon has obtained ISO and certifications, among them: Quality Management System based on ISO 9001:2015, Environmental Management System based on ISO 14001:2015, Environmental Management System certified in Sustainability 3Rs, gold mention.
Read more in Spanish:
El Caribe
30 May 2022