Old Family Business Is in the Chips : Food: Casa Sanchez began 65 years ago as a homemade enterprise. Last year, the Bay Area tortilla and chip maker posted sales of $1.35 million.

On the front of every bag of Casa Sanchez tortillas and chips is the proud logo of a boy in a sombrero astride an ear of yellow corn, its brown husk blowing in the breeze as it blasts through a starry sky.

Although the design was adopted during the 1960s infatuation with space exploration, it is more than appropriate for the success of a skyrocketing Mexican food business that began when Robert Sanchez’s grandparents arrived from south of the border in 1924.

They started by selling their stone-ground, handmade tortillas to neighbors and opened a small Mexican delicatessen.

“They sold to their neighbors, but people came by and bought the masa and the corn husks and the chili peppers. . . . As the need increased, they delivered,” Sanchez said.

Through the years, the business remained a small-scale operation that essentially fed the family and provided children with jobs and a warm, friendly place to celebrate birthdays.

It’s difficult to tell from the simple, storefront exterior of the tiny, six-table Casa Sanchez, but since Robert Sanchez III took over seven years ago, things have changed dramatically.

The Mission District restaurant and factory responsible for making and distributing approximately 50 food items--primarily tortilla chips and salsa--has seen sales grow from $185,000 four years ago to roughly $1.35 million in 1989.

Sanchez said he wasn’t surprised by last year’s sales volume.

“In a way, we projected that,” he said. “I would have liked to have more because the business is there.”

He anticipates 1990 sales of at least $1.6 million.

Today the business has 23 employees and five truck routes that service a 40-mile radius of restaurants and grocery stores, including the giant Safeway chain, six days a week.

Workers report at 6 a.m., no earlier in deference to their neighbors in the residential area, and produce an average of 2,500 pounds of flour and corn tortillas and chips daily.

Sanchez, who earned a psychology degree from the University of Santa Clara, said he has introduced modern business principles, computers, consultants and more sophisticated marketing strategies. He said he started networking when it wasn’t called networking. Improved customer relations will be his next big push.

But more important, Sanchez said, devotion to proven recipes and techniques--”nothing fancy”--deserves credit for much of the operation’s success. Fresh California corn is cooked in large vats, mixed with water and lime, and ground with two large stones.

“This is the most natural way we can go,” he said. “That’s the way they do it in Mexico.”

And the tortillas used for chips aren’t cut up until after they have been baked briefly. Sanchez said that affects flavor and absorption of the safflower oil that the chips are fried in, as well as the salt with which they are sprinkled.

“We don’t take any middle steps out, like other producers do,” he said. “The customers can tell the difference.”

Sanchez, 32, the oldest of five children, knows that there is a growing clientele for Mexican food, ranging from the booming Hispanic population in California to non-Hispanics increasingly hungry for such treats as burritos, tamales, enchiladas and chimichangas.

Sixty percent of the region’s residents are white, compared to 85% in 1960, according to Lewis Butler, president of California Tomorrow. But by 2020, whites will make up just 40% of the population and Hispanics will make up 25%, said the organization that studies California’s demographic changes.

Robert Sanchez Jr. said he’s stunned by the growing familiarity with Mexican food throughout the country.

“I don’t know how long it will last, it might be a fad,” he said.

Retired at 68, he said he’s happy to step aside and let his children and his wife, Martha, carry on.

“There are a lot of old men who still want to be the captain, and I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” he said. “The kids see more of the future. I’ve seen the past.”

One thing that his son hopes for is another San Francisco 49ers venture into the Super Bowl. When the 49ers faced off against Denver this year, he thought Casa Sanchez was ready. But many stores and restaurants ran out of their supplies of chips and salsa before the game was over, he said.

“We knew there would be a surge, but we didn’t know it would be that big,” Sanchez said. “So the 49ers better win (a Super Bowl berth) next year, because we’re ready.”