Company's growth rate ranks high among Hispanic firms

by Heather B. Hayes
for Virginia Business
December 2006

Jose Gomez didn't think small in 2000 when he wrote his business plan for an organic snack-food company. He wanted to build a company that eventually would reach $100 million in sales. Today, his Prime Choice Foods Inc., based in Bristol, Va., is on its way toward that goal, with $10.2 million in sales last year.

Prime Choice Foods' sales have grown 200 percent in the past five years, making it the second fastest-growing, Hispanic-owned company in the country, according to an annual list compiled by Hispanic Business magazine.

Gomez, a former executive for a pork rind company in California, admits that he is a little surprised to be doing quite so well, especially since he had a hard time getting started. He discovered Bristol while researching potential sites. After acquiring some equipment in the city, he decided to base the company there when a 40,000-square-foot former snack-food manufacturing plant came up for auction. He bought the building and spent a year readying it for operation.

Getting financing presented the biggest challenge. "Here I'd come in from California with this big plan, and the banks were a little wary of whether or not I could do what I said I could," he says. "But I eventually convinced them."

Today, Prime Choice Foods sells organic tortilla chips that qualify as "good-for-you snacks" thanks to their use of organic corn, healthy oils and all-natural ingredients. The chips are sold under private label to major retailers such as Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, Kroger and Ingle's. The company also recently struck deals with Fresh Foods and Food City.

Prime Choice Foods also has its own label, Go-Mex, which eventually will expand to other types of Mexican foods, including boxed meals and frozen foods, as well as dry nuts and organic salsa. "Next year, the big push will be to build the brand," Gomez says.