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After 30 years of labor as salesman on a hat company Mr. Horacio Arbelaez founded Distribuidora Nacional de Sombreros and its brand name Monterrey on April 26, 1977.
At First, the new company started to sell hats at the wholesale market into the Antioquia state where the first warehouse was open and at the same time they did retail sales on their own store at downtown’s Medellín – Antioquia.
On 1990 the company have had a growth on their operation to 5 hat stores in Medellín and widen their warehouse to attend the new customers from all over the country in Colombia.
The second generation took the business on 1991 starting with some international sales to Venezuela and the Caribbean, the new turn on sales make the new people to open a manufacturing factory on finished Panama hats. Hiring over 1.000 families to weave hat bodies to be blocked and tailored to the tastes of the finest customers from many countries around the world.
The raw material of straw hats, known world wide as “Panama hats” is extracted from a palm called Toquilla or Iraca palm. (Cardulovica Palmata) As a result the final product “Monterrey Panama Hats” are 100% bio degradable, becoming on a nature friendly product.
