Skip to main content

Executive role · September 1999 – December 2010

Real Mex Foods

Designed, opened and ran a food manufacturing operation from the ground up, then grew its outside manufacturing sales from $80,000 a year to $128 million.

$80K → $128M

in yearly outside manufacturing sales, grown over 11 years

Real Mex Foods

The situation

Real Mex Foods needed a manufacturing operation to supply its restaurant brands and, over time, outside customers.

What Nacho did

  • Designed, opened and managed the entire operation, with full P&L responsibility for the plant.
  • Led outside sales, working directly with restaurant chains, retailers and foodservice distributors.
  • Managed day-to-day compliance with USDA, FDA, the Health Department, the County Sanitation District, AQMD, OSHA and other agencies.
  • As Director of Research & Development for the Acapulco restaurant chain, created its new menu concepts and the El Torito Grill concept, and formulated them for mass production in the commissary.

The result

Outside manufacturing sales grew from $80,000 a year to $128 million over 11 years. Plant EBITDA reached 12% during the first ten years of operation and kept growing at that pace through the end of his tenure.

By the numbers

plant EBITDA reached in the first 10 years and sustained after
12%
running the plant's P&L, sales and R&D
11 years

Related services

  • 01

    Food Manufacturing

    Build better. Operate smarter.

    Plant design, equipment layout and start-up for USDA and FDA facilities, plus the quality, sanitation and compliance programs that keep them running.

    • Plant design
    • Equipment layout
    • Start-up
    • QA & sanitation
    • USDA / FDA

    Explore Food Manufacturing

  • 02

    Operations & Profitability

    Find the money hiding in your operation.

    Labor scheduling, portion control, yields, KPIs and P&L discipline. The unglamorous work that turns a producing plant into a profitable one.

    • Labor
    • Food cost
    • Portion control
    • KPIs
    • P&L

    Explore Operations & Profitability

  • 03

    Product Development & Commercialization

    From recipe to production line.

    Industrial formulation, batch sheets, COGS, nutritional analysis and packaging, so a recipe that works in the test kitchen works at production scale.

    • Formulation
    • Scale-up
    • COGS
    • Nutrition & labeling
    • Packaging

    Explore Product Development & Commercialization

Facing something similar?

Tell us about your operation and what you need to change. We'll tell you honestly whether we can help.