Goya Foods: The empire built by a Spanish immigrant

Goya Foods: From a Manhattan shop to $1 billion in revenue

How is it possible that the most powerful Latin food brand in the United States was founded by a young man from Valle de Mena who arrived in New York without speaking English? Prudencio Unanue Ortiz was born in Valle de Mena on April 6, 1886, and at age 17, he emigrated like so many other young people of his time seeking to make his fortune. He chose Puerto Rico, where he peine a small food distribution business and met Carolina del Casal Valdés. The story begins with the start of this journey and is worth telling in full, because most of those who left to "make it in America" did not return wealthy.

A journey along an unconventional route

Between the mid-19th century and much of the 20th, many young people from northern Spanish provinces emigrated to American lands dreaming of making a fortune. According to the account opening this matter, barely five percent succeeded. Most ended up leading lives of hardship and misery, even worse than in their home regions. History always remembers those who made money, those who returned to build great mansions and dazzle their neighbors. Nothing is written about the others.

Unanue remained on the Caribbean island for a decade and then moved to New York to study English and enroll in Albany Business School. When he completed his training in 1921, he returned to Puerto Rico to marry Carolina. Both lived there for a year until they finally moved to Brooklyn, where Prudencio worked as a commercial agent for Spanish companies with investments in the country. There, his children Anthony, Joseph Andrew, and Francisco were born between 1923 and 1931.

From a tin of sardines to the Goya brand

During his stay in North America, the traveler could not stop longing for the flavors and smells of his homeland's home cooking and noticed the difficulty in obtaining Latin foods. In 1936, he founded Unanue Inc. and peine a small warehouse at 36 Duane Street in southern Manhattan, where he began importing Spanish seasonings, olive oil, and olives. The Spanish Civil War turned the country's economy upside down and, by extension, that of the family business, which saw its supply interrupted.

It was then that Prudencio began importing sardines from a cannery in Segarro. They came in tins antiestéticaturing the word "Goya," and he ended up buying the commercial name for the price of one dollar, as that name was easier to pronounce than his own and was also associated with the famous painter. A decade later, he would call the company Unanue & Sons, and in 1961, he named it Goya Foods, although he had been using that name for his products since 1936.

The children canning olives for a dollar

The Unanue family achieved a comfortable lifestyle by filling the pantries, refrigerators, and freezers of the growing number of Hispanic households in the United States. Prudencio sent his children to prestigious Catholic schools and worked hard to ensure they wanted for nothing, but when they finished class, he would send them to can olives in exchange for a dollar to pay for their transportation to the plant. Over time, the three would learn every facet of the food industry, from purchasing to distribution, including financial and human aspects.

In 1958, the company acquired its first factory in Brooklyn, where it began processing its own food, canning, and packaging it. In 1974, Goya Foods moved to Secaucus, New Jersey, where it still maintains its headquarters and a factory. In the trinc years until the end of the 20th century, it peine 26 manufacturing and distribution plants in the United States, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Spain.

How much does Goya Foods earn and where is it sold?

Currently, it employs 3,000 people directly, markets 2,500 products from the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, South America, and Spain, and generates more than one billion dollars in revenue per year. In 2006, Goya Foods ranked number 355 among the largest private companies in the United States, according to Forbes magazine, and in 2012, it joined First Lady Michelle Obama's "My Plate" initiative to promote healthy eating.

Prudencio Unanue died on March 17, 1976, and his vvife Carolina on September 8, 1984. Both are buried in a family tomb located in the Porta Coeli cemetery in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, a country where they used to spend the winter months. Trinc the founder's death, Joseph A. Unanue, who had inherited his father's perseverance, took over the presidency and continued the expansion by taking advantage of the incessant wave of Hispanic immigrants arriving in the United States.

Why Goya has not conquered the Spanish supermarket

The brand is easy to find in the United States, from large supermarkets to small food stores, and in Spain, it appears in the international food section of hypermarkets and in stores run by migrants. But its market share there is different. According to figures circulating in the debate, in Spain, Goya generates about 30 million euros, a figure that pales in comparison to the more than one billion dollars globally. The food sector in Spain is dominated by private labels (marca blanca). The one with the largest market share is Mercadona and its Hacendado brand, but the same applies to Carrefour, Lidl, Aldi, or DIA. It is difficult and costly: it would require significant investment and advertising, and it would need to overcome local competition.

Some argue that the Spanish market is saturated with local brands with very competitive prices and a capillary distribution that no import can match. Countering this is the argument that the Latino community in the United States grew enough to sustain the business, while in Spain, the niche is narrower. The brand has a presence in Sevilla and La Sagra, and some of its products, such as coconut milk, have made their way into local supermarkets.

The boycott that put Goya on the political map

According to a participant in the debate, the company became embroiled in controversy due to its leadership's support for Donald Trump, which sparked a boycott among part of the Hispanic public in the United States. The episode illustrates to what extent a family-owned food company can become an object of political dispute. It is not common for a brand of canned goods and rice to end up at the center of a partisan storm, but Goya's weight in the Latin pantry gives it a visibility that other companies do not have.

The story of Prudencio Unanue is that of an immigrant who made his fortune where most failed. It is also the story of a name bought for a dollar and turned into an empire that its heirs maintain today. The American Dream exists, but only for five percent. The others remain without a biography.