Abogados de Inmigracion

"We were able to create a significant volume by combining the two corporations for this Mexican foods business," said Luis Marconi, the managing director of MegaMex. "The brands were already on the market.

It was more of a reorganization and refinement of processes than a start-from-scratch approach."

Through the joint venture, MegaMex has a fairly comprehensive portfolio, Marconi said. The portfolio includes brands such as Chi-Chis, Herdez, La Victoria, Embasa and Dona Maria, which are expected to resonate with Mexican-American and mainstream consumers.

The products include hot sauce, mole and salsas.

"We have the ability to leverage brands that resonate with general market taste preferences and Mexican taste preferences," Marconi said.

Marconi has good reason to expect that the brands will appeal to consumers. Packaged Facts -- a publisher of market research in the food, beverage, consumer packaged goods and demographic sectors -- projects that the Hispanic food and beverage segment of the U.S. retail marketplace will reach $8.4 billion by 2011, up 48 percent from 2006.

"Our focus is to grow Mexican foods in general," Marconi said of the brand distribution that has been undertaken by MegaMex. "We have discovered that Mexican foods are gathering more and more popularity virtually across all demographics."

Hispanic buying power is also rapidly increasing in the United States, according to the report "The Multicultural Economy 2009" by the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the Terry College of Business, University of Georgia.

"In sheer dollar power, Hispanics' economic clout will rise from $212 billion in 1990, to $489 billion in 2000, to $978 billion in 2009, and to $1.3 trillion in 2014," the report states.

In 2009, Hispanics accounted for 9.1 percent of all U.S. buying power, up from only 6.8 percent in 2000 and 5 percent in 1990.

The state of California accounts for 26 percent of Hispanic buying power in the nation, according to the report.

"We have gathered a very strong interest from retailers because they are seeing the same trends," Marconi said.

Marconi said he believes the popularity of Mexican foods is also increasing because people are going back to basics due to the economic downturn. They are eating at home more. In addition, for adventurous consumers, purchasing ethnic food at a grocery store may be cheaper than eating out.

Chino was chosen as the location for MegaMex for because there is incredibly high consumption of Mexican foods in Southern California compared to the rest of the nation. Chino provides good logistical access for distribution not only in Southern California, but to West Coast and Arizona grocery stores as well.

The facility in Chino includes a 285,000-square-foot warehouse and houses MegaMex's administration and marketing team.

The new venture is intended as a "one-stop-shop" for retailers.

Instead of ordering hot sauce from one company and tortillas from another, the retailer can select of number of products from MegaMex's portfolio, and those products will arrive in one package, Marconi said.

The retailers are saved time and money because they do not have to deal with ordering small quantities from multiple suppliers.

Marconi said it comes down to economies of scale.

"We are looking at ways to do it very efficiently,so the whole chain gets benefited - consumers and stakeholders," Marconi said.