The untold story of the commercial globalization of southern Gran Canaria is directly linked to the epic of the twentieth-century space race. The arrival of the American soft drink giant Pepsi-Cola in the Canary Islands didn't occur through traditional hotel distribution channels, but rather at the foot of the antennas of the NASA tracking station operated by the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA) on the coast of San Bartolomé de Tirajana. The deployment of US scientists, engineers, and military personnel in the late 50s to coordinate the Gemini program missions and the historic Apollo 11 mission to the Moon generated an unexpected demand for typically American consumer products in the heart of the commercial desert of Maspalomas.
Pepsi Cola's strong connection to southern Gran Canaria fostered the soft drink's popularity, but its presence in Maspalomas has gradually diminished, and today the PepsiCo product no longer carries the same weight. The Las Palmas-based manufacturer also has other markets, including Mercadona, Carrefour, Lidl, and Hiperdino.
American technicians stationed at the Maspalomas base longed for the consumption standards of their hometowns, which spurred the first massive orders for the popular cola drink in the southern region of the island. This influx of foreign demand in a rural, coastal area just beginning to experience tourism transformed the operations of the local company managing the product, laying the operational foundations for what is now known as Ahembo, SL. The multinational found its best brand ambassadors in NASA personnel, introducing a consumption habit that quickly became commonplace among the Canary Island population in the south.
The pioneering distribution of Pepsi-Cola and 7Up in southern Gran Canaria forced Canarian businesses to modernize their supply and bottling chains. This logistical requirement, imposed by aerospace engineers, brought unprecedented industrial efficiency to the bottling plant, which brilliantly combined the production of major international brands with the development of deeply rooted local brands like the iconic Clipper soft drink, born in a Las Palmas garage in 1956.
The maturity achieved by the regional distributor since the space race era allows it to manage a workforce of over 350 professionals today. The company derives a significant portion of its revenue from tourism, but within that sector, Coca-Cola is the leading product. NASA's historic presence on the Maspalomas dunes not only placed Gran Canaria on the map of space exploration but also acted as the definitive catalyst for the soft drink industry to adopt international distribution standards, transforming a quaint, space-based consumption phenomenon into a key economic driver for the archipelago's prosperity.
