🇨🇴El Carriel

elcarriel.com.co Productos Alimenticios El Carriel S.A.S. Colombian family food company and dominant leader of Bogotá's arepa market (~70% share) — founded Aug 17, 1992 by two brothers from Sonson, Antioquia (Luis Alberto & Luis Alfonso Valencia) and their wives, who started selling handmade arepas from bicycles via a consignment model. Today: 9 plants in Bogotá & Medellín, 1M+ arepas/day, full vertical integration — 2,000 ha of own corn (Pioneer seeds), own mill, 400+ employees, ~$8M revenue (31.3B COP, 2023), no external investors. Exporter to the US (since 1999), Australia and England; state-recognized ESG model: 578 solar panels, 30% electric fleet. Tragedy: Nov 2024 — co-founder Luis Alfonso was murdered at his ranch by an insider who had spent 2 months profiling the property; both killers got 36 years in 2025, and the business never stopped. Bottom line: two uneducated brothers on bicycles became a vertically integrated agro-industrial champion that survived even its founder's