Pascual Boing is a Mexican soft drink maker mostly known for its fruit flavored beverages marketed under the Pascual, Boing! and Lulú brands. The enterprise was begun in 1940 and successfully held against the entrance of foreign competitors in the Mexican market. However, continued labor disputes led to a strike in 1982, which ended in 1985 with the workers obtaining the right to take over the company, running it as a cooperative. Since then, it has remained a profitable business although it has lost market share in Mexico, due to competition from Coca-Cola and Pepsi. This has prompted the company to protest unfair practices which exclude it from retail venues as well as look abroad to new markets, especially in the United States. it is also one of the sponsors for many Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre and Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide's shows
History
The company was originally a private enterprise, started in 1940 by Rafael Victor Jiménez Zamudo. In the 1960s, Jíménez began using tetra paks and acquired its Northern plant from Canada Dry, along with a franchise to produce and market these products. Two plants were opened in the 1960s. In 1980, the company was fourth in the soft drink market in Mexico. On May 31, Jiménez and others confronted the striking workers at the plant in Colonia Tránsito. Violence broke out and two strikers were killed, with seventeen wounded. Jiménez was formally accused of murder but was not prosecuted.
After years of being idle, the new worker/owners needed about 1.5 million dollars to restart operations. There were two small auctions but the money being raised was not sufficient and the continued selling of the artworks became difficult.
Pascual does not see itself as a private, for-profit company; they claim that being worker-owned, they perform a social function and as such expropriation in their favor is for public benefit. Since their founding, they have received vocal and political support from the PRD, intellectuals, writers such as Elena Poniatowska, college students and those opposed to globalization.
Despite its problems, the cooperative has grown, opening major processing plants in San Juan del Río, Querétaro, in 1992, one in Tizayuca, Hidalgo, in 2003 and another in Culiacán, Sinaloa, in 2006. Despite its growth, the cooperative has had to rebut assertions that it is going broke.
Today, Pascual Boing is the only remaining wholly Mexican owned major soft drink bottler. In 2003, the company partnered with the federal government to circulate information about the prevention or kidnapping of children which included announcements on Pascual Boing trucks and materials for schools.
Products and production
right|thumb|300px|Boing! drinks produced by Pascual Boing
The company sells fruit juice, nectars, concentrates, carbonated beverages, bottled water and milk. In 2011 the company invested about 25 million pesos to expand the Tizayuca plant.
Marketing and distribution
Most of Pascuals’ products are marketed on the Boing!, Pascual and Lulú brands. While its products can be found in all of Mexico, distribution is concentrated in the center and northeast of the country, with the Mexico City area accounting for sixty percent of sales. Delivery of products is mostly handled by an outside cooperative of truckers. In 2008, the exported about 1.5 million of the 50 million cases of beverages it produced. Pascual Boing used to have a fifty percent share in Mexico but this has shrunk to fifteen percent. In the 2000s, Disney complained again that the logo looked too much like Donald Duck. In 2007, it was changed again, with the current version having a rapper look with ruffled feathers and a baseball cap turned backwards. The collection includes sculptures, canvas works, diptychs, triptychs and more. The collection has been put on display various times such as in the Centro Cultural El Refugio in Tlaquepaque and Espacio del Arte of Televisa.