The first thing you do when you enter Goya’s rice and bean plant in Secaucus is put on a hair net. Everyone wears one into the production area, although some workers are more clever than others, sticking the nets under hats or shaping them in some other fashion. Even the manager, Benjamin Spinnickie, wears one as he leads a tour of the facility. Everything that comes into this place is sealed against contamination, boxes and loose goods sealed in shrink wrap until needed by the production line.
Everything begins and ends at the loading dock. Commodities arrive from around the world or the United States – beans, spices, and rice. Some are installed into huge white bags known informally as “totes.” They weigh a ton each, are driven to special containers by forklift, and have pull-strings at their bottoms that allow their contents to be dumped into the distribution mechanism. Depending on the product and the size of the sales box or bag, these totes might feed the packaging machine for 15 minutes or less.
Dry bean products go through a repackaging process as the one-ton totes are installed above the redistribution vats. There is a kind of ceremony that takes place when the worker releases the pull string and a tube descends from the bottom of the bag, releasing the gush of beans into the machine.
Many items arrive at the loading dock in more manageable containers of 50 or 100 pounds. All are sealed against contamination. Some – especially grains – are brought to a refrigerated section to be stored. All packages are coded for easy location later when needed to feed the production line.
All products are eventually brought back to this section for storage or shipment after they’ve been repackaged. One pallet of bags seen during a tour was labeled as frijoles.
The smell of spices fills the air as the series of machines feeds vat-like funnels and conveyor belts.
Goya was one of the first companies to relocate to the Secaucus Meadowlands in the 1970s, said Esperanza Carrion, marketing director for Goya Foods.
The family saw it as a potential growth area near the cities, which are a big market. The company employees 2,000 in its variety of plants in and out of the United States, with 450 workers in Secaucus.
National headquarters
“Goya is a major force in the local economy,” said Carrion.
Secaucus houses the national headquarters for the company as well as its plant for the packaging of rice and beans. Plants elsewhere in the country produce can goods, soft drinks and the 1,000 other products the company offers.
Special formula products, such as spice mixes for rice, are calculated by hand with a worker adding each ingredient into a metal vat according to a preset recipe.
“We have more than 40 different formulas,” said Benjamin Spinnickie, manager for the Secaucus plant.
A product called “yellow rice” is the company’s biggest seller. The machine mixes the spices, then distributes them to a conveyor belt, which seals the mix into special waterproof pouch, snaps open the boxes, installs the pouch and rice, and then seals the boxes, sending the collection to workers who pack them for shipment to stores. The line can produce and package three items at a time. X-ray machines monitor each bag for contaminants such as piece of metal. Special weight sensors check to make certain each pouch or box has the appropriate amount of product. Finally, another x-ray monitor with attached video recording checks each container leaving to make certain it has the appropriate number of pieces inside.
“We can look back and check the number of the cartons against the tape if a customer complains,” Spinnickie said.
Goya corners the market
Fifteen percent of the American population is Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and Hispanics are the largest ethnic population in the country. There are more than 35 million Latin Americans in the United States – an increase of 160 percent since 1990.
Hispanics have a potential buying power of $542 billion a year in the U.S., spending about $51 billion on food alone. The Census Bureau estimates that the Latino population will increase by another 55 percent by 2020. The largest individual group in the United States are Mexicans or people of Mexican decent – or about 60 percent of all Latinos living in the United States, followed by Puerto Ricans and Cubans.
The 2000 census shows that New Jersey had about $1.2 million Latinos, a 51 percent increase from 1990, which accounted for more than half the total growth in the state. Latinos make up 13.3 percent of the state’s population. Hudson County has the largest Latino population, with about 230,000, an increase of about 24 percent since 1990.
Although the state’s Latino population is mostly Puerto Rican, there has been a shift in the rest of the state’s Latino ethnic makeup over the last generation, with immigrants or the decedents of immigrants from Mexico and Dominican Republic replacing Cubans as the second largest Latino group. Others hail from places like Columbia, Ecuador, Peru and other nations from Central and South America.
Goya, whose national headquarters is in Secaucus, is third largest Hispanic-owned company in the United States, and the largest food company. The company has had a remarkable growth over the last decade. In 1991, sales were $300 million a year. By 1999, they were 700 million. In 2002, annual sales of reached about $750 million a year.
Goya has a commanding share of the Latino market in the Northeast, at 60 to 80 percent, and is seeking to increase its share in other sections. Goya produces about 1,000 Hispanic and Caribbean grocery items, included canned and dried beans, canned meats, olive, rice, seasonings, plantain and yucca chips, and frozen entries. It sells more than 20 rice products and 30 types of beans and peas. It also sells beverages such as tropical fruit nectars and juices, tropical sodas, and coffee.
One of the challenges for supplying the Latino community is that Hispanic culture is diverse, including Spanish, Puerto Rican, Central and South American, Cuban, Dominican, and Mexican influences.
“Each of those has a different culture,” said Carrion said.
Mexicans tend to eat a lot of corn-based and amaranth products, according to a Latino food service report. South Americans eat wheat, quinoa, and potatoes. Latinos from the Caribbean and coastal regions of Latin America, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, favor rice products.
Beans are a staple in most Latino diets. Mexicans, for instance, eat six times more beans than non-Latinos. But Latinos from different countries favor different kinds of beans. Cubans, Southern Mexicans, Central Americans and Venezuelans like black beans. Venezuelans and Brazilians like chickpea or garbanzo beans. Cubans, Center South Americans and Latinos from the Caribbean like red kidney beans.
“We sell 45 varieties of beans,” Carrion said, citing a familiar saying in the company: “tell me what you eat I’ll tell you where you’re from.”
Spices differ also. Latinos from Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic use more oregano, garlic, tomato, and black pepper than chilies to season recipes.
Each culture came in at a different time, bringing in new requests for the company. Puerto Ricans began to arrive in the 1950s, bringing with them a taste for codfish fritters. When the Cubans arrived in the 1960s, they brought a taste for frozen fruit pulp, and Dominicans in the 1970s wanted pigeon beans. The 1980s and 1990s have seen a great influx of Central and South Americans, who like black beans. Southern Mexicans during this period wanted corn flour.
Goya’s staff are constantly in neighborhoods talking to bodega owners, said Andy Unanue, Goya’s chief operating officer. “Our salespeople are learning about who has moved in and what these people are asking for,” Unanue said. “Our salespeople are out in those neighborhoods every day talking to people in the bodegas in Spanish. They get a sense of the trends before anybody else. Many of the newer products, or what quantities they produce, result from these ongoing conversations.”
Goya’s sales staff allows the company to mark changes in population well before most of the official sources in government.
Goya has had a facility near Seville in Spain since 1974 which packs and exports olives and olive oil, Unanue said.
The company also has production facilities in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. The bulk of the lines are imported into the US, although they also produce canned beans in Buffalo, N.Y. and dry beans, flour, and rice mixes in Secaucus. Altogether, Goya has more than 13 facilities throughout the U.S., the Caribbean, and Europe.
Reaching out to the general public
Although Goya recently has begun putting out more advertising aimed at the general public, they said they have courted such customers in the past, once even hiring an actress and developing a slogan: “Goya, Oh Boya!”
Non-Latinos have been seeking “authentic” ethnic foods, a trend Goya is counting on. They are looking to capture people’s increasing taste for Latino foods.
“Many people are looking for hot and spicy foods, and in the case of Mexican cuisine, a more sophisticated combination of ingredients,” Carrion said, noting that salsa now outsells catsup nationwide.
Goya staff are quick to point out that spaghetti was once considered an ethnic food, as were the many Chinese food menu items.
“We have launched a new campaign to reach the general market and to create a very positive impression for Goya products,” Carrion said.
Latino culture is very lively in its music, its colors and its foods. Carrion said many non-Latinos find these things attractive, with starts like Ricky Martin and others making Latino culture more acceptable to the mainstream.
Unanue said the company is now forging deals for distribution with stores like Wal-Mart
While Unanue said this is a significant effort to reach a larger market, he also said it was important to always remember the Latinos who got the company where it is.
An American dream
When Gov. Jim McGreevey came to Goya’s warehouse in Secaucus, he celebrated the heroic efforts of the company’s president, Joseph Unanue.
Goya, founded in 1936, remains one of the largest family-owned businesses in the country. While Joseph Unanue is has brought the company a long way, each generation of Unanues has added something special to the country.
Prudencio and Carolina Unanue, immigrants from the Basque country of Northern Spain, met and married in Puerto Rico, founded Goya Foods, Inc. in 1936. They found themselves in a Latino neighborhood in New York City where immigrants still craved foods from their homelands – especially olives, olive oil and sardines. The couple packed and distributed food that they imported from Spain and gradually expanded the geographical distribution and product lines, drawing in foods from other Latino cultures.
Back in the early 1940s, while going to school in Englewood, Joseph worked for the summer in his father’s Latino food-packing plant in Manhattan. He lived in Bogota, N.J., took the train to Weehawken, and rode the ferry across to Cortland Street in New York, where he spent the days ladling olives and capers from metal drums into glass jars. Joseph was drafted in 1943 and served in Europe under Gen. George Patton. After the war, he tried other professions before settling back into the family business.
Over the next 25 years, he learned every facet of the food industry, from purchasing, production and distribution to credit, personnel and payroll. In 1976, he became president of the company and transformed the family business into a multimillion-dollar concern.
Frank Unanue, who died last year, believed strongly in social and economic status for Latinos. He founded the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in New York City during the 1960s, and along with his brother and other family members developed a strong program supporting various charities and programs throughout areas where the company did business. Frank, who oversaw operations in Puerto Rico, received numerous recognitions in his life time for Goya’s charitable efforts. He was an avid supporter of sports, youth programs, and projects that promoted the importance of education. In 1998, Goya launched its first ever corporate campaign, with the slogan “Goya Respalda lo Bueno,” roughly translated as, “Goya Applauds the Best.” This was designed to highlight the hard work of schoolteachers. Frank was a firm believer of the impact that businesses had on society. He considered his employees his companions and good friends, and they were always integrated into the Goya family.
Andy Unanue, who serves as the chief operating officer of Goya in Secaucus, has similar beliefs. Most of his employees call him Andy, and his door – the larger glass booth in a maze of office cubicles – is open to any employee who wants to talk to him. Many of the 2,000 employees in the company have been with Goya for 20 or 30 years. He said he has a term for his employees, “the great Goya family.” This is something generated through all levels, from vice president to newest hire.
His company continues to donate to numerous charities, and he serves on numerous boards including the Smithsonian board for Latino initiatives.
The corporate office is a maze of cubicles filled with phones, fax machines and computers. Each cubicle is thick with Goya promotional posters. In some cubicles, there are flags from various countries. Andy’s office sits at the end of the row glass walls, making him as visible to his employees as they are to him.
Although he never worked in Tribeca in the olive oil business, like other family members, he has unloaded trucks and done other work in the family-owned company since he was in the seventh grade.
For Andy, it is a matter of carrying on a family tradition.
“I have it a lot easier than my grandfather, my father and my brother,” he said. “They developed this company that is very well-respected in the community. We have lived the American Dream. It is our idea to give a taste of home to every immigrant coming to this country from Latin countries, but here is the land of opportunity. My grandfather realized the American dream, and my father, and we were very successful through the food industry. Other immigrants can be, too.” – Al Sullivan