Yesterday, after 18 months of construction and $44 million, Goya Foods opened a huge new distribution facility in West Miami-Dade to send goods to Latin America and beyond.
One of those present was president of Florida operations, Frank Unanue, a member of the family that owns the nation's largest Hispanic business. (His brother Tom, who is Vice President of Florida Operations, and Florida's Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll were there too).
We asked him a couple of weird questions because, whyinhell not?
What is your favorite Goya recipe?
"Anything with beans, I love all of the beans," he said.
Your least favorite product?
"Malta, which is Goya's malted beverage. "It's like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, it's kind of like that sort of thing."
What he really wanted to talk about, though, was the 338,000-square-foot facility at 13300
NW 25th Street. From here, Goya products will be shipped to countries in the
Caribbean, South America and even Africa. It is currently the largest of Goya's
16 facilities and is able to produce one million cases of dried beans a year.
Founded in 1936 in Lower Manhattan by Prudencio Unanue
Ortiz, Goya is owned by
the Unanue (pronounced OO-nah-NU-we) Family, who are the
second-wealthiest family in the United States with a net worth of $700
million, according to Latinomoney.com.
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