Goya Foods Takes a Cautious Line

Goya Foods, a leading Latino-owned business, is approaching its expansion into several new markets the way a family firm should: carefully.

“It’s family money. A large corporation would be more inclined to invest,” said Mari Unanue-Norris, a Goya product specialist and a granddaughter of the company’s founder. “It’s harder to invest because you have to make sure you do the right thing.”

When Prudencio Unanue started his business in 1936, he imported sardines and olive oil in modest quantities. Today, Goya employs 1,200 people, has more than $210 million in annual sales and distributes about 300 types of foods, ranging from fruit nectars to spices and 12 varieties of beans.

Latino Immigrants

Goya is thought to be the largest Latino-owned company in the nation.

Traditionally, Goya customers in the United States have been Latino immigrants, such as Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Colombians and Cubans, living along the East Coast.

But if sales are to continue to grow, Goya must attract new customers, including the young professionals and Mexicans, without jeopardizing its current base, its executives said.

It is up to the third generation, including Unanue-Norris and her brother, Joseph Unanue Jr., to push innovation without compromising family tradition, which both consider a key to Goya’s success.

“There is a spirit from a family that is extremely hard to match in a non-family corporation,” Unanue said.

That atmosphere rubs off on the employees, many of whom have worked for Goya for decades, Unanue-Norris said. It is evident in the mural in the lobby of the 250,000-square-foot complex depicting the company’s history and key players, including members of the family and outsiders who reached top management positions.

Moved to New York City

Prudencio Unanue left Burgos, Spain, at age 18, worked in various stores in Puerto Rico and then moved to New York City in the early 1930s.

He began importing Spanish foods, such as olive oil and sardines, for the small Spanish community living in the city at that time. His supplies were cut off when the Spanish Civil War erupted. He turned to Morocco for imports and then bought the name Goya from another company in 1936.

In 1949, he set up his first cannery in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, bringing a new industry to the island, Unanue said. The imports from the Caribbean were distributed first through warehouses in Manhattan. The operation moved to Brooklyn in 1958 and to this northern New Jersey community in 1974.

Today, Goya also has facilities in Chicago, Miami, Spain and the Dominican Republic. Joseph Unanue Sr. oversees the U.S. operations while his brother, Frank, runs the business in Puerto Rico. Some shares are held by the widow of a third brother, while a fourth brother sold his interests to the family. The founder left his shares to his 18 grandchildren.

Sales have tripled over the last decade, after-tax profits are in the area of 3% of sales and debt adds up to only $105,000, the company says.

Meanwhile, Goya is continuing its push for non-Latino customers and those Spanish speakers who have assimilated to the mainstream. The company spent between $1 million and $1.5 million last year in English-language advertising in the New York City area, still considered the major market, said Joseph Unanue Jr.

The commercials feature a variety of beans, considered the most likely crossover product because they are a common denominator in many diets. The other is cream of coconut, essential for mixing pina coladas.

Books of Recipes

The print ads also offer books of recipes using Goya products. As a tie-in, Unanue-Norris appeared as a guest on television cooking shows throughout the country to demonstrate the recipes.

She said the promotion was aimed at “people who like to try things and have some extra money to spend.”

Another expansion, into the Mexican market, was difficult at first, because Goya managers did take into account the different cooking and buying habits of Mexican immigrants.

“A lot of the food is the same, but the preparation is different,” said Joseph Unanue Jr.

For example, he said, Mexicans fry their beans while other Hispanics serve them in a sauce. Mexicans also use more spices in their corn-based diet and they prefer to buy larger quantities.

The first foray into the Mexican market in the mid-1970s was a failure because “we were not as fully prepared and informed as we should have been,” Unanue said.

“It’s a small part of our business. We’ve fine-tuned since then” by adding products, such as spicy green peppers and offering foods in larger bags, he said.

Despite the experiments and new marketing techniques, the company has not forgotten its first clients, the owners of the small “bodegas” in Hispanic neighborhoods.

The company charges those small shop owners the same price as their giant competitors, Unanue said.