Over the past three centuries, the Steuer Family has had the vision and determination to successfully overcome challenging contexts.
The Steuer family has been involved in the industry for seven generations.
In 1724, the Steuer family produced natural essences in Minon (northern Bohemia).
Later, during the Industrial Revolution, they moved to Prague and founded Steuer & Friedlander, exporting their essences, oils, and liqueurs to Vienna and Budapest.
In 1926, the 50th anniversary of Steuer & Friedlander in Prague was celebrated by opening their factory in Bucharest.
By 1939, the company was the largest supplier serving the pharmaceutical, liquor, and food industries in Central Europe.
After the crisis of 1929, following the economic changes introduced by the Great Depression, Karel Steuer and his brothers decided to diversify, creating the first Department Store in the center of Prague, which they called “Te-ta” (“aunt” in Czech). After only five years they expanded into five cities, and finally, in 1936 the new branch in Belgrade (Yugoslavia) was renamed “Ta-ta” (father).
In 1938, this was followed by branches in Romania, Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Transylvania.
With the outbreak of World War II, in 1939 Karel Steuer decided to emigrate to Colombia, and in 1940 he opened the first retail store in the country, which he named “Tía”, the Spanish version of the original store. From Colombia, Tía continued to expand and opened its first branch in Buenos Aires in 1946, in Montevideo (Uruguay) in 1956, in Lima (Peru) in 1958, and in Guayaquil (Ecuador) in 1960, as part of its strategy to gain national coverage.
Karel and his daughter Doris expanded their business culture by leading by example. Their descendants decided to strengthen and expand that culture, taking corporate governance based on family values.
In 1985, Francisco De Narváez took over the direction of the Group and redefined it with a future-oriented vision.
He organized and delegated his role to new teams of professionals, then went on to assume the Group’s chairmanship.
Since 1999, the Group has accelerated its growth organically and through acquisitions (MultiAhorro, San Roque, and Frontoy in Uruguay; Magda in Ecuador; and Walmart —now the Más platform— in Argentina), building a strong regional presence in retail.
In 2025, after seventy years of presence in Uruguay through TaTa and other brands, the Group decided to sell its retail operations in that country as part of a strategic reorganization of its regional portfolio. The shared history in Uruguay remains a fundamental chapter in the family’s and the Group’s trajectory.
Today, the Group operates hundreds of stores across the region and continues projecting new stages of growth, remaining faithful to the entrepreneurial vision that has guided it since its origins.
