History & Photo Gallery
Historia
1912
The Central Romana Corporation was founded in the year 1912, when it was originally named the South Puerto Rico Sugar Company, a North American sugar company based in Puerto Rico that decided to invest in the Dominican Republic after purchasing 20,000 acres of land in the northern part of the La Romana province. The purpose of the La Romana subsidiary was to grow sugar cane and to transport it by steamboats to Puerto Rico, where it would be processed in the town of Guánica. During that time the plan was to prepare the company’s land, located in the eastern part of the country, for the cultivation of sugar cane. The South Puerto Rico Sugar Company had to construct access routes through the Eastern part of the country in order to have access to its land.
Soon after, the company had to reevaluate its operations due to the high cost and the implicit risks represented by the transport of sugarcane to Puerto Rico. Upon proper analysis, the company built a sugar mill in the Dominican Republic during the year 1914, becoming the first major industry in the region. At that time, La Romana was a small town with a scarce population. The first crop of Central Romana was in the year 1917, three years after the sugar mill began construction, and it created numerous sources of employment for the impoverished zone. The grinding capacity at that time was of 2,000 tons of sugarcane per day.
1926
In 1926 all exports of sugarcane to Puerto Rico were suspended and the full local production process began. This was the beginning of a time of prosperity, shortly followed by difficult years due to plummeting international sugar prices which took place during the great depression of 1929. The situation later improved after World War II with a period of economic growth that followed.
1957
In 1957, during the dictatorship of General Trujillo, the South Puerto Rico Sugar Company sold the Santa Fe sugar mill to the dictator. The capital provided by the transaction financed the expansion of the Central Romana Sugar mill, increasing its grinding capacity up to 20,000 tons of sugarcane per day by 1958. That same year a new sugarcane plantation division (Baiguá) was acquired and the expansion of the Cuyá division was also realized. The expansions in the sugarcane plantations created a significant increase in the sugarcane production with a total of seven sugarcane plantation divisions, which to this date have continued to be the agricultural platform of the company.
1964
In 1964, the North American company, Gulf + Western, also expressed interest in the South Puerto Rico Sugar Company, and began buying the shares of the company, until ultimately gaining a controlling interest in 1967.
The new owners of the Central Romana Corporation took advantage of the change in administration, as well as the peaceful climate the country was enjoying, thereby regaining the levels of production that their installed capacity and vast sugar cane fields provided. During that time the Central Romana Corporation also began to benefit from favorable international market prices for sugar from the US quotas, caused by the discontinued relations between Washington and Cuba. The new favorable economic climate allowed the country to place practically its entire exportable sugar production in this market.
The increase in price of the world sugar market enhanced the financial stabilization of the company and the beginning of a process of expansion and diversification that has continued unimpeded, over the last 30 years.
1978
In 1978 there was another significant change in the administration of the Central Romana Corporation, with the assignment of Carlos Morales Troncoso, Ing. Eduardo Martínez-Lima and Lic. Ramón Menéndez, as the company's president and executive vice presidents. By 1985 Carlos Morales Troncoso left the company for a political career and Ing. Martinez-Lima and Lic. Menendez remained as the executives of the company. During this time, the company began the process of diversification into other areas of business, such as the tourism industry among others.
The new management of the Central Romana Corporation made significant changes to make the company more efficient and in turn they reached a global record during the crop of 1982, having the largest sugar production by a single sugar mill, which surpassed the amount of 480,000 tons. This new level of prosperity achieved during these years, allowed the company to start numerous social and economic programs, which have had considerable positive repercussions.
Due to the many economic and social programs established by Central Romana, the Dominican Government decided to give one of the highest commemorative honors to the Chairman of the board of directors of the Gulf + Western Corporation, Mr. Charles Bluhdorn.
1984
In 1984, the Gulf + Western Corporation sold their stake in the Central Romana Corporation to a group of local and foreign investors, which had considerable experience in the sugar production business.
Today, the Central Romana Corporation has a solid reputation with almost 100 years of experience and a workforce of over 25,000 employees. Its sugar production represents approximately 70% of the total production of the country, exceeding 400,000 annual tons. That makes the company the largest producer and exporter of raw sugar in the Dominican Republic. It is also the largest supplier of refined sugar in the domestic market, which has made Central Romana synonymous with sugar in the Dominican Republic. Apart from the Sugar production, Central Romana has diversified its operations into different sectors of the Dominican economy. The company sees its future growth in the Tourism sector of the Dominican Republic. Welcome to our photo gallery. Feel free to browse around and get to know us a little better.