Goya Foods doubling its size in area
Goya Foods plans to nearly double the size of its local manufacturing footprint to meet the demands of a growing population.
Goya Foods plans to nearly double the size of its local manufacturing footprint to meet the demands of a growing population.
The New Jersey-based Hispanic food company is adding 324,000 square feet of new warehouses, offices and support buildings to its 380,000-square-foot manufacturing and distribution facility in Brookshire, west of Houston. The plant expansion will help Goya reach new consumers in the region and across the western U.S.
“With the growing need for good nutrition, it’s an opportune time for Goya to expand,” company president Bob Unanue said in a statement.
Goya was already planning for expansion when it moved into its 130-acre campus in 2014, said Evelio Fernandez, a Goya executive. Goya has seen a 15 to 20 percent annual increase in demand for its canned beans, which has prompted the company to expand its facilities sooner, he said.
“All of our products have had a tremendous increase in demand,” Fernandez said. “People are finding out that beans are good for you and are eating more beans.”
At the same time, grocery stores are stocking a wider variety of staple foods to cater to a more diverse population in Houston, said Jeff Thomas, a food distribution expert with Houston-based engineering firm LAN.
“If you look at the number of products people expect to find prepared and prepackaged today versus 10 years ago, the increase is significant, if not staggering,” Thomas said in an email. “When I was a kid, there were about three kinds of canned beans. Now there are dozens available to meet the demand of the consumers.”
With the expansion, Goya will eventually double its current production of 480,000 cans each day, Fernandez said. The expanded fa-
cility will feature cooking, refrigeration and packaging equipment, such as a hydrostatic bean cooker and cannery that can produce 1,000 cans of beans and tomato sauces a minute. Goya is also looking at producing additional food items at the plant, Fernandez said.
The expanded distribution facility will feature 29 new docks, florescent lighting with motion sensors, 7,000 square feet of windows, high-efficiency roof systems and an energy-efficient heating and cooling system.
The Goya campus, 30602 Goya Road, also features water pumps, a wastewater treatment plant, railroad spur, boilers, refrigeration equipment, a test kitchen, quality control lab, dry bean room and a 17-foot-tall guard shack in the shape of a Goya can of beans.
KDW, a Houston-based general contractor, broke ground on the expansion several months ago. The project is slated for completion by May 2018.
Goya is planning an- other expansion within the coming decade that will take the manufacturing and distribution facility to 1.1 million square feet, Fernandez said.