Santa Ana’s ‘Meat King’ Savors Success : Success: Luis Mendoza, meat company owner and restaurateur, has a simple formula for making it: ‘When you’re determined, you can do anything you want.’

Luis Mendoza sits in the second-floor office of the Central Meat Co. at a desk piled high with paperwork. Civic awards hang on two walls and a mural depicting scenes of traditional Latino ranch life hangs on another.

The mural symbolizes the life Mendoza left behind when, at the age of 13 and accompanied only by an uncle, he left his home town of San Luis Potosi in central Mexico to find his fortune in the United States.

The cluttered desk and civic awards tell of the life he found: hard work and much success.

“My mother didn’t want me to go, but I asked my uncle to bring me,” Mendoza recalled recently as he leaned back in his chair and gazed at the mural. “I came to America for a better future. At that time, it was the best thing to do.”

Today, the 52-year-old businessman is known as the Orange County “meat king” among his friends and associates because of the success of his wholesale and retail meat business, Central Meat Co. in Santa Ana, one of the largest in the county.

Mendoza started his small meat company in 1983 with his family and two others as the only employees. Initially, the company sold meat to restaurants and tortillas and eggs to walk-in customers. In six years, it has grown from annual sales of $85,000 and several employees to sales of $6 million and 26 employees.

He also owns a popular Mexican restaurant, Rancho de Mendoza in Santa Ana, and plans to open a second restaurant in Santa Ana later this year.

And as if that wasn’t enough to keep him busy, he is also negotiating the purchase of a 230-room hotel in Santa Ana.

Al Amezcua, vice president of the county’s Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, describes Mendoza as an ideal role model for the county’s minority small-business people.

“He’s unique,” Amezcua said. “It wasn’t too long ago that he started from scratch.”

Although his days often stretch from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week, he has found the time to get involved in a range of community organizations.

“He’s always in the forefront,” Amezcua said. “He’s interested in seeing that our community is well-served by the Hispanic business community.”

Like many immigrants, Mendoza earned his business success the hard way: working his way from the ground up. As a young man living in Texas and Oklahoma, he held an assortment of restaurant jobs. A year after marrying Agustina Velasquez in 1956, he moved his family to California, where he landed a night chef’s job at the former Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

In 1960, he enlisted in the merchant marine, embarking on a 19-year career as a seaman.

It was while at sea that Mendoza says he learned the basics of running a business. He held various jobs, ran a kitchen that dished out 3,000 meals a day and eventually was promoted to assistant of operations, where he hired crews for the ships.

Mendoza’s career, however, posed a hardship on him and his family. Three-month stints at sea meant that he seldom saw his wife and four children. He finally left the merchant marine in 1979.

Mendoza moved his family to Rosemead and bought a restaurant in the San Gabriel Valley with money that he had saved during his years as a merchant seaman.

“I decided to buy a restaurant because I knew that line of business,” he said.

Two years later, Mendoza sold his restaurant and bought a small meat company in Santa Ana after noticing an advertisement in a local paper.

He returned to the restaurant business in June, 1988, opening the Rancho de Mendoza, which he named after his family’s ranch in Mexico.

Despite the heavy demands of running two businesses, Mendoza finds time to get involved in civic activities. He is a director of the Downtown Business Assn. of Santa Ana, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Orange County and the Santiago Club, a nonprofit organization that promotes Latino interests in the county.

He was an organizer of the county’s first Fiesta de Independencia Parade last September. The festival and parade, celebrating Mexico’s independence from Spain in 1821, was so successful that organizers plan to make it an annual event.

“He was really the backbone in that activity,” said Amezcua, the Hispanic chamber vice president.

Mendoza was recently recognized by the Orange County Minority Business Council for his accomplishments in the business community and his visibility in the Latino community.

Mendoza usually can be found filling orders for about 60 restaurants, stretching from Bakersfield to Palm Springs.

“He is a real workaholic,” said his son, Roland, 29, who works for his father in payroll and in supervising other employees.

Says Luis Mendoza: “When you’re determined, you can do anything you want. The hardest part in starting a business is the first two years. If you can survive two years without losing the business, you can make it.”

LUIS MENDOZA

BACKGROUND: Immigrated to the United States at age 13 from San Luis Potosi, Mexico. After 19 years in the Merchant Marines, he opened his first restaurant in El Monte in 1979.

EDUCATION: Attended night school in Harligen, Texas, finishing the 10th grade.

AGE: 52.

BUSINESS: Central Meat Co. and Rancho de Mendoza Restaurant, both in Santa Ana.

EMPLOYEES: At the meat company, 26, and 24 at the restaurant.

FAMILY: Married in 1956 to Agustina Valaquez, four children, ages 20, 28, 29 and 31.

AFFILIATIONS: Santiago Club of Orange County, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Orange County, and Downtown Business Association.