Cervecería Polar

Lorenzo Mendoza Fleury founded the company in 1939, and its brewery at Antímano in Caracas started on 14 March 1941. In 1943 the Czechoslovak brewmaster Carlos Roubicek moved the recipe to a pilsner type made with maize flakes, and Polar built its own maize plant, the start of its food business. Malta Polar followed in 1951. Light beers overtook Polar Pilsen around 2000. From the 2010s Polar struggled to import malted barley; its plants stopped in 2016–17, and Caracas and Maracaibo closed for good in 2018 and 2019. It still brews Polar Pilsen, Polar Light and Solera at San Joaquín, Carabobo, and holds about three quarters of the market.