User:Sbrn ling/Distribuidor Rabié

Distribuidora Rabié or Casa Rabié, was the name of a Chilean business originating in the city of Chillán, which had distribution centers in the cities of Antofagasta and Santiago, in its peak operating within cities in Africa and the Chiloé Archipelago.

20th Century
It was founded in 1902 under the name "Casa Rabié" by Nicolás Rabié, a Palestinian immigrant who settled in the city of Chillán when he was 17 years old. The property, other than being a store, was the founder's home, and it was located on the street Cinco de abril (or "Fifth of April,") in front of the Chillán Market. Their first items for sale were fabric imports brought from Europe, in addition to clothing and cosmetics. Eight years later, he married Selma Davani in Beit Jala, Palestine and then returned to Chillán, where the couple raised six children, of whom two joined the business.

In the early 1930s, Casa Rabié had offices in the city of Paris, France, where it imported clothing and products from Japan, Italy, England, and the People's Republic of China. Following the 1939 Chillán earthquake, Selma Davani passed away in the ruins of Casa Rabié. It was then that the business was rebuilt and, later, run by Jorge Rabié Davani, one of Nicolás Rabié's sons. Jorge tranformed the former store into a distribution center which, in the 1980s, managed to distribute its retail goods throughout all of Chile. By 1955, the Rabié family had acquired plots of land for forestry plantations.

By the 1980s, Casa Rabié had changed its name to Distribuidora Rabié, with the slogan "The new fashion distributor." Unfortunately, there was a fire in the business home office in 1985. In 1992, the distributor moved to Santiago, Chile. In 1996, its leader opened the first shopping center in Chillán, christening it as Mall Plaza El Roble. Later, the manager passed away in 1999, it was formally opened as a distribution center in the community of Chillán Viejo.

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Jorge Rabié Uauy, grandson of the company's founder, took over his father's position following the latter's death. The problems within the company would become known during the 2000s, through the statements of Humberto Contreras Anguita, who in 2003, linked Rabié Uauy and José Luis Aguilera to the Spiniak Case, the latter, was a retired carabinero who was in charge of security for the company Rabié, also considered responsible for the death of Percy Arana, a Peruvian singer, killed during the Military dictatorship. Subsequently, in 2012, Contreras would be convicted of fraud against Distribuidora Rabié for theft, between 1999 and 2002. In terms of administration, Rabié Uauy's management began with the milestone of installing a distribution center in Antofagasta in 2002, and two years later, the company modernized its facilities throughout the country. In 2009, with the establishment of wholesale stores called Punto Rabié, whose sales earnings were negative as the opening coincided with the expansion of other supermarket networks, belonging to Cencosud and Walmart Chile. In that year, the property on Cinco de Abril Street, which was the former property of the family, was purchased by the company SMU, which was turned into a store called Unimarc and is still in operation. After the 2010 Chile Earthquake, there was a fire at the distribution center in Chillán Viejo. In 2013, the closure of the distribution center in Antofagasta was the prelude to the company declaring bankruptcy in October, being administered by the trustee Herman Chadwick Larraín, and dragging debts with Banco de Crédito e Inversiones, Banco Santander and Unilever.