Ricardo Lizárraga Granados was the founder of Café Marino, an industry that, wherever you are, you recognize as a Mazatleco label
The founder of Café El Marino was from El Verde, Concordia. When he was just 5 years old, his mother, Amada Granados, died, and his father, Juan Lizárraga Zaráin, remained in charge of him and his brothers.
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While the brothers went to work in the mining area in the Sierra de Durango, he studied, it was not until he was 14 years old that he accompanied them and due to his age, stayed working in a ray shop as “ mandadero ”.
Ricardo Lizárraga Granados: from “ messenger ” to entrepreneur and businessman
At 18 he decided to live in Mazatlán, invited by one of his uncles, there they offered him his grocery store “ La Gaceta Comercial ”, he was in the Center. Later he bought “ The Gold Belt ”.
He was already a merchant, a young businessman. At that time, one of his suppliers invited him to start the coffee business, a Spaniard named José Montes.
In October 1950 the first coffee store was born, on Avenida Zaragoza, between Damy and Corona, next to the Red Cross. This is how what we know today as Café El Marino was born, from having a small toaster mill to an entire factory.
In 1951 he bought land on Gabriel Leyva Avenue, that’s where the company has been maintained ever since. In 1957 the company El Verde was born, which later became Café Verde S.A., dedicated to the purchase of raw materials.
Between 1957 and 1958, this company already had offices in Mexico City and later in the coffee zones of the country.
¿Did you know that he did not know coffee plantations? It was until one of his trips to Xalapa, Veracruz when he did it and he devoted himself to tasting the mixes.
With an started production, in Mazatlán, Lizárraga Granados promotes the National Coffee Association, yes, very far from the coffee plantation areas. With this also the search to export.
Its first exports went to the United States, then to Canada, Switzerland, France and Iceland.
Café El Marino, where does the name come from?
¿Have you ever wondered where the name of the coffee comes from? If you pay attention to its logo you will notice that it has a boat, since its name comes precisely from the people who were most looking for the product, the sailors.
100 percent family and Mazatleca company
Ricardo Lizárraga Granados married Yolanda Mercado Escutia and they fathered Carmen Yolanda, Juan Carlos, Arturo, Javier and Ricardo, plus a son who did not survive. “ Don Ricardo ”, as many told him, passed away in 2020.
One of his sons, Javier Lizárraga Mercado, was in charge of the company until 2017, then left the post office to his brother Juan Carlos.
Each of the brothers is part of the administrative council and today, even Ricardo Lizárraga Granados’ grandchildren are part of the new family business, with new ideas for drinking coffee and the return of a store at the foot of the factory, a place to sit down for coffee quietly.
Today, they are bearers of the Socially Responsible Company, Corporate Social Responsibility, Family Responsible Company, Mexico without Child Labor awards, and the KA Kosher certificates, Certificate of Organic Coffee Europe, SQF Institute, USDA Organic, UTZ Certified.
It has a catalog of 202 products, from the brands Café El Marino, Post Cereals, Powder Food, Sugar Foods from Mexico, Tigelow Tea, Massimo Zanetti, Canned Seafood, Cans, Bottles, Malt Meal Bags and Cereals.
Café El Marino, in addition to representing a family, represents a city that grew at the same time, that reflects the birth of industry and that today, it is presumed by the marzathlecos wherever they are.
