The beginning…
Vento Distributors Corporation
is a warehouse distributor of automotive parts and car care products. It was founded in 1975 by the father and son duo of Juan M. Vento and his son, Juan L. Vento. The roots of the company however, started ten years earlier when they began selling automotive parts and maintenance products to customers all over Puerto Rico out of the back of a van. As time passed, their strong will to succeed and commitment to offer the customers great service, reasonable prices and the right mix of car care products, helped the business grow. By 1975, the family was able to open a small warehouse operation in Puerto Nuevo, right behind Mr. Vento Sr.’s home. At that time, what Vento Distributors lacked in capital, was more than made up with the family’s commitment to hard work and to go out of their way to offer its customers premium product lines with excellent service at the best prices.
Expansion – Family of Companies…
As the years went by, Juan Vento Sr. retired and his son began to aggressively expand the business. He realized that the company had created a very efficient distribution system, but it was not able to offer the same level of service to customers located on the west coast of the island. To address this need, Vento Mayagüez Inc. was established in 1986. This was a risky move because no other automotive warehouse distributor in Puerto Rico had opened a second location before and doing so required a large capital investment. This was, however, the only way to offer the customers in the western part of the island access to Vento Distributor’s full product lines closer to them so their orders could be delivered quickly and efficiently. Then, as a continuation of this quest to go beyond its customer’s expectations, Vento Ponce Inc. was created in 1992 to further expand the concept of extreme service to customers in the southern part of the island. Now with three warehouses, the distribution system for Puerto Rico was complete and Vento Distributors was able to offer the same outstanding service, competitive pricing, and one on one attention anywhere in Puerto Rico. These moves also helped Vento Distributors expand its product offering with the right mix of the most prestigious automotive lines, as it was able to offer the most complete distribution system in the region to its suppliers.
Since the early years of the business, Vento also realized that it not only needed to open separate warehouses in other locations to complete its distribution. He also realized early on that the sale of automotive parts required different resources and strategies than the sale of maintenance and car care products. Therefore, Dima International was created in 1980 and the distribution of all hard parts, such as alternators, starters, mufflers, engine parts, suspension parts, etc. would be channeled through this separate corporation. Universal Chemical followed in 1990 as the need arose to control the manufacturing process for some of the items the company distributed. Today, Universal Chemical blends and packages market leading brands like Grand Prix, Freeze Zone, D4, and many other quality automotive lines. Universal Chemical also acts as a co-packer of household products for many distinguished companies and creates customer-specific promotional and pallet-ready packages. The evolution of this philosophy continued in 1993, when Venture Distributors was opened solely to distribute Interstate Batteries. Venture is now the largest independent Interstate Battery distributor worldwide and Interstate is the leading aftermarket automotive battery brand in Puerto Rico.
Going International…
The Vento philosophy of going into new businesses is to either go all-in, or not go in at all. Even though Vento Distributors has been exporting its product lines to its solid customer base in seventeen islands throughout the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean for many years, in 2005 Vento Dominicana, S.A. was created, thus expanding the international reach of the company. Vento Dominicana S.A. distributes prestigious automotive lines through its three distribution centers in the Dominican Republic. The Santo Domingo warehouse services the capital city and the southwestern part of the country, Santiago de los Caballeros services the north “Cibao” region and the newest warehouse is located in Higüey in order to better serve the customers in the eastern part of the island. With this expansion, the distribution system for Dominican Republic is complete and it mirrors the setup in Puerto Rico. Then in 2008, the international growth continued as PartsTrading Panama opened its doors with a warehouse in Albrook, Panama City. This is the company’s first venture outside the Caribbean region and it plants the seeds for further expansion in the years to come.
Our History, Our Future…
Throughout the years, Vento Distributors has grown into an international distribution company, with ten wholesale locations totaling over 170,000 square feet of warehouse, manufacturing and office space in three countries. The company services a wide variety of customers including, auto parts stores, convenience stores, corporate fleets, department stores, supermarkets, car dealerships, hardware stores, mass retailers and warehouse distributors, while realizing that each has specific needs that must be met. As the company has grown, it has never lost sight of the principles and strong moral foundations that helped create it. This is still a family company and the family values, perseverance and the standard for excellence that was established in the back of that van more than 45 years ago will be present in everything Vento Distributors does, always.