• Continues on page 46 • FOOD INDUSTRY BY HERNANDO RAMÍREZ-SANTOS T here’s a scent that greets customers the moment they walk through the door at Fresco Supermarkets: fres- hly baked bread. That seemingly small detail encapsulates a decade of decisions designed to make Hispanic customers feel at home. Abasto magazine spoke with Sergio Be- nítez, chief operating officer of Fresco Su- permarkets, who has been with the chain since day one. Ten years after that ope- ning, Benítez still gets emotional when he recalls the moment, he knew the project would succeed. A Start No One Expected In 2016, the store closed its doors as a Winn- Dixie one day and reopened the following week as Fresco y Más. No one at the com- pany imagined what was to come: sales jum- ped nearly 500% almost immediately. “Nothing like this had ever happened to us as a company, as an organization,” says Benítez, still surprised by that public res- ponse. The store was located in Hialeah, a city in South Florida where more than 90% of the residents are Hispanic. The rebranding struck a chord that no one had tapped into before. To understand how to build that con- nection, the team traveled to California to study Northgate González Markets, a well-established Hispanic chain in the market. From that learning experience, Fresco’s formula was born: Caribbean, Mexican, and South American products under one roof, with the warmth of a nei- ghborhood market. Sergio Benítez, director of operations, spoke with Abasto about the first decade of the Hispanic grocery chain in Florida THE TASTE OF SUCCESS: Ten Years of Fresco Supermarkets 44 • Septiembre | Octubre 2026 • abasto.com