Yasmin Gonzalez

Fabrica Pochi at a glance

• Industry:Food and Beverage
• Company:Fabrica Pochi
• Impact areas:Social, BOP
• Consulting focus: Built strategies for product introduction, brand positioning, and increasing distribution
  

Fábrica Pochi produces and distributes purified water, carbonated water, juice, ice cream, and bolis (popsicles). Yasmín González runs Fábrica Pochi with her husband, Oscar Diaz, and their two daughters, to supply low cost drinks and ices in the city of Managua.
Nineteen years ago, Yasmín saved $50 to buy used machinery and started selling bolis in the Mercado Oriental, an enormous market in Managua. During this time, she was facing a tough economic situation, and Oscar was working in Costa Rica to support the family. Pochi grew into an enterprise that now has a factory and three distribution locations where it mainly sells to mobile vendors as well as 15 distributors at bus stops around Managua. Despite early growth and a robust market, however, Pochi had little formal experience with marketing or business finance. Agora is working with Pochi to establish strategies for product introduction, brand positioning, and increasing distribution channels.
"From the beginning [the consultants] wanted to know everything and every time I would explain something to them, they would ask: 'but why this? and why that?'... I slowly began to understand that all their questioning was important... As was my case, sometimes one is so in love with their work that they do not reason objectively. The consultants at Agora helped us see things from different points of views."