Cover Story // 45
CASA LEY TAKES A SWING AT TRANSCRITICAL The food retailer – owner of the Tomateros de Culiacán pro baseball team – is the first in Mexico to install an all-CO2 refrigeration system, testing the technology in the country’s hot climate
C
asa Ley, a major food retailer in Northwest Mexico that operates 246 stores, has formed some fruitful relationships with businesses in the U.S. One of them started with baseball.
– By Michael Garry Based in Culiacán in the state of Sinaloa, Casa Ley owns the Tomateros de Culiacán, part of the Mexican Pacific League, which plays from October to January.
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We were surprised to be the first. But we’re proud of that.
BELOW From left: Juan Manuel Ley-Bastidas and Rafael Francisco Navarro Torua, Casa Ley Photography by: Cesar Rodriguez
September 2018 // Accelerate America
In 1980, Juan Manuel Ley, son of company founder Juan Ley Fong (see story, page 51), met with Peter Magowan, then CEO of Safeway stores and future president of the San Francisco Giants.
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Ley and Magowan bonded over their mutual love of baseball. That friendship led to a joint venture the following year in which Safeway gained a 49% stake in Casa Ley, allowing the Mexican chain to enter a period of rapid expansion. (Casa Ley regained full ownership in January 2018.) Casa Ley’s decade-long relationship with another U.S. company, Columbus, Ga.based refrigeration manufacturer Kysor/ Warren, a division of Heatcraft Worldwide Refrigeration, has led to a new opportunity – becoming the first supermarket operator in Mexico to install a climate-friendly transcritical CO 2 refrigeration system in one of its stores, a new 75,347-sq-ft supercenter in Culiacán that opened last month. “We were surprised to be the first,” said Juan Manuel Ley-Bastidas, son of Ley and current CEO and chairman of Casa Ley. “But we’re proud of that. It validates the work we’re doing.”