Almacenes Tía
Tiendas Industriales Asociadas S.A. Tía S.A. branded as Tía is a South American retailing brand founded in 1940, with separate divisions and brands in Ecuador, Uruguay and Colombia. It is the largest discount retailer in Ecuador and Uruguay operating there nearly 300 locations under the brands Tía, MAGDA, Ta-Ta and MULTI AHORRO. In Colombia Tia S.A (Colombia) operates 19 locations under the Tía brand.
History
Tía S.A finds its roots in the Eastern European supermarket chain Te-Ta founded by Kerel Steuer and Federico Deutsch in the 1920s in Prague, Czechoslovakia, with presence in Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Romania. The Second World War and its effects forced the founders to emigrate to the Americas leaving everything behind, and beginning operations in Bogotá, Colombia in 1940 under the brand Tía, later expanding to Argentina, Peru, Uruguay and Ecuador under the Tía brand and other brands.
The wave of European migrants in the 1930s brought to Colombia a dozen members of the European families Steuer and Deutsch who created a store where customers could find everything they wanted without having to go to other stores.
The idea of creating a store similar to those that existed in Eastern Europe was protocolized on October 14, 1940, opening the first Tía store in South America, on Carrera Séptima, between calles 17 and 18, in the heart of Colombia, Bogotá.
