Our History

Cristalia Premium Water was founded in 1986 by Salvador “Chiri” Vasallo. Chiri wanted to create a Puerto Rican Company dedicated to producing only the highest quality water. With deep roots in the Ponce area he naturally dedicated his efforts to distributing this water in both one gallon and five gallon bottles in the Ponce metropolitan area. Since he lived in the area, excellent service was a must.

After two years of operations, Chiri decided that to bring his brand to the entire island of Puerto Rico he would need the distribution mussel of a powerful marketing and distribution company. He found these traits in The Pepsi Cola Puerto Rico Bottling Company and sold Cristalia to Pepsi PR in 1989. Pepsi for its part, could not afford to risk its high quality image with any product that did not exhibit the highest standards of professionalism, service, and quality and so the choice of Cristalia Premium Water was a good fit for the Pepsi PR organization as an entry to the bottled water market as well.

For the ten year period from 1989 – 1998, the local Pepsi bottler produced and distributed Cristalia throughout Puerto Rico. Many improvements to the production and quality control process were introduced by the Pepsi organization and continue to this day. However, in 1998, the local Pepsi bottler was sold to the giant Pepsi Americas bottler and as a result of a strategic review of its operations; the decision was made to sell off the Cristalia division to a group of local investors headed by David Virginia. The purchase was completed in April 1999 by David and his group. David Virginia has been President and CEO of Cristalia since its acquisition in 1999.

The local group has as its only focus the development of Cristalia Premium Water as the premier bottled water in the Caribbean. Sales have grown nearly fore fold since 1999 with the introduction of many new package sizes, such as 10 oz, ½ liter, 1 liter, 1.5 liter, 2.5 gallon, and 3 gallons in single serve and multiple pack variations. Quality and taste is still job number one with the new group, and Cristalia is now the leading local bottled water company in the Caribbean on a dollar sales basis!

• Our Name
• Our Community