A Food Brand Started By Hispanic Immigrants Is Taking Over The US

Goya Foods, which sells canned beans, rice, spices, and thousands of other grocery products is launching a $300 million expansion with four new warehouses in California, Texas, New Jersey and Georgia.

The company's growth has been fueled by Americans' growing taste for Hispanic foods and the swelling population of Latinos in the US, writes Shan Li in the Los Angeles Times.

The U.S. market for Latino foods is projected to reach $10.7 billion by 2017, which is a 31% increase from 2012, Li notes, citing the grocery industry reseach firm Packaged Facts.

Hispanics are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the US, making up 17% of the American population, according the US Census Bureau estimates. Their share of the population is expected to grow to 31% by 2060.

Many major food companies, including Kellogg, General Mills, and Kraft have been expanding their investments in ethnic offerings, as a result.

But "Goya is in a unique position to take advantage of its customers' growing affluence and evolving tastes," Li writes.

Goya's sales surpassed $1.3 billion in 2012, according to Forbes.

The company sells thousands of Hispanic-inspired foods, such as pico de gallo salsa, "Mexican" ketchup, and frozen taquitos. And it doesn't have a national competitor in the US, according to analysts.

The family-owned company was founded by Prudencio Unanue Ortiz, a Puerto Rican immigrant, in New York City in 1936.

The current president of the company is Unanue's grandson, Bob Unanue and 16 other executives are also relatives, according to Crain's New York Business.