Best in the Northwest: Don Pancho's

http://www.allbusiness.com/periodicals/article/562769-1.html

Joseph,

Above is a link to a great article on one of your relatives that apparently inherited the Puentes Bros business now headquartered in Salem, Oregon. I tried to copy the article and send it to Ranchos, but you have to register for a password in order to read the entire article (four pages).

I didn't realize that the Don Pancho's brand (Puentes Brothers Inc.) is named after Francisco Puentes (your last surviving uncle?).

In the article, the executive VP, Ricardo Baez, says that the business expanded across Oregon and Washington as a growing number of Hispanics moved into the region because the cost of living is so much more affordable---than it is in other parts along the West Coast.

"A lot of Hispanics over the years have been priced out of the market in California," Baes says. "What they did was they sold their houses down there because they couldn't believe the quality of life up here". [That's what we did!]

The article states that the company is still run by Don Pancho's son George Puentes, the company president, with Phillip Puentes, VP of operations, Frank Puentes, warehouse manager, and Baez, their brother-in-law, heading up sales and marketing. The company has expanded into more than tortillas; they produce flavored wraps, low-carb wraps, low-fat wraps, gluten-free wraps, tortilla chips, un-fried tortilla chips, tostadas and taco shells. The company also mixes its own spices, produces its own custom tortilla mixes and sells imported Mexican cheeses, and can even provide chorizo. The business has diversified and expanded up to Canada, and west to Idaho, Montana, Utah, the Dakotas, and the Midwest. "Twenty-five years ago, it wasn't fashionable for grocery stores or food distributors to offer Mexican food items. Now it's the trendy thing to do." Also, the Salem, Oregon plant has been certified organic. [Way to go!] Production is now computerized around the clock in Sal
em, Salt
Lake City, and Yakima, and they have huge warehouses, silos, plants, truck bays, semis, and their own rail spurs for prompt delivery of fresh ingredients.

The rest of the article goes into a description of the production, which to me was interesting, since I love tortillas: flour and corn lines, fryers, mixers, dusters, proofers, presses, ovens, elevators, chutes, coolers, accumulators, sealers, bar coders, case packagers and metal detectors (all state-of-the art). Tortillas are produced at the rate of 3,500 an hour, and the plants have earned a superior rating from the American Institute of Baking, and have on-site full-scale quality assurance labs. As Mexicans we can be proud of what some of our own have accomplished.

See what your Dad and his brothers started, Joseph? By the way, is there still a Puentes Brothers store in San Jose, or has it all gone big business?

Emilie Garcia
Port Orchard, WA --