Business View Caribbean - August/September 2018

70 71 MANGUSA SUPERMARKETS HARDWORK AND STRONG FAITH M angusa Supermarkets were found- ed by Belmira Sousa de Lira, and her husband, Francisco Gonçalves, Sr., two émigrés from Madeira, an autonomous region of Portugal, an archipela- go comprising four islands off the northwest coast of Africa. They bought some land in Seru Grandi, Curaçao, and sold the vegetables they planted and harvested to a local grocery store. The couple opened their first small store, a “toko” near the Janwe church called Maria Teresa in 1973. They supplied the store with produce from their land and supplemented the rest of what was needed with produce from the floating market. They found a second location on Cascoraweg and opened another store, called the Toko Mangusa, in 1977. In 1984, they expanded Toko Mangusa, which then became the Mangusa Minimarket. Five years later, after another expansion, it became AT A GLANCE MANGUSA SUPERMARKETS WHAT: A grocery company with two outlets WHERE: Willemstad, Curaçao WEBSITE: www.mangusa supermarket.com