The origins of Grupo Salinas are set in 1906, when Salinas’ great grandfather, Benjamín Salinas, created Salinas & Rocha, a modest family-owned furniture Manufacturing company. In 1950, Salinas’ grandfather, Hugo Salinas Rocha, created Grupo Elektra, and when Ricardo Salinas became CEO of the company in 1987, Elektra had fewer than 60 stores and averted financial distress following the devaluation of the peso. Salinas refocused Elektra on basic products: appliances, electronics, and furniture. Significantly, he developed a vast new consumer market among Mexico’s lower-middle income consumers by providing credit sales (guided by careful risk-management practices) and diverse financial products and services, including money transfers via an alliance with Western Union. In just a few years, through organic expansion and acquisitions, Salinas built Grupo Elektra into Latin America’s largest specialty retailer.