Origins Santa Isabel was founded in
Valparaíso, Chile in 1976 by Eduardo Elberg. Until the mid-1990s he maintained organic growth within the
Valparaíso Province and the historic Los Lagos province now split into
Los Lagos and
Los Ríos provinces. In 1996 an aggressive plan was started to expand the company both nationally and internationally. During this expansion the company went public and entered the Chilean capital region, Peru, and Paraguay under the subsidiary Supermercados Stock. In July 1996 the company bought Multimarket's 25 locations in Santiago and the country's south under the Multimarket and Gigante monikers. During September of said year Santa Isabel acquired ten Marmentini Letelier stores in the Metropolitana Region and
San Antonio areas. At the same time the company expanded to Ecuador. In 1997 the company was acquired by Velox Group, owner of Argentine stores
Disco. Towards the end of the 1990s the company operated 63 branches in Chile under the Santa Isabel name, and also Hipermercados Stock in Peru and Ecuador. . In 1999 it was procured by
Ahold during the purchase of Disco Argentina. Previously Santa Isabel had absorbed Supermercados Agas (that also owned Supermercados Uriarte). At this time the company created the Tops en Hipermercados concept which replaced the Stock brand.
Cencosud era South American multinational titan
Cencosud bought out Santa Isabel and Tops completely in 2003. Santa Isabel locations were used to complement and not compete with the corporation's existing
Jumbo Hypermarkets as neighborhood markets. Later the company bought out Las Brisas, Extra and Monte Carlo supermarkets in 2004 rebranding them Santa Isabels. The same thing was done with the 2006 acquisition of Economax markets. ==References==