Family-owned Hispanic foods company Cacique Foods announced that it moved its corporate headquarters to Irving from Monrovia, California, and has opened a new dairy processing facility in Amarillo.

Cacique is a leading maker of authentic Mexican-style cheeses, cremas, chorizos, and salsas in the United States and said it is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a focus on innovation and increased production capacity.

Gil deCardenas, CEO of Cacique Foods [Courtesy photo]

“We’re proud of the success Cacique has seen over the past 50 years. The company started with my mother perfecting cheesemaking, while my father sold Queso Fresco door-to-door, one pound at a time, out of coolers in our family car,” Cacique CEO Gil de Cardenas said in a statement. “As we’ve grown from our humble roots, one employee at a time, Cacique Foods remains a family-owned company, and we’ve remained true to the core values my parents founded this business upon: Family. Quality, Integrity and Authenticity.”

Cacique said it hopes to deepen its roots in Texas with the opening of a new corporate headquarters in Irving, where it said it can better serve customers from a centralized location.

The company said its new headquarters office will provide an exceptional work environment for the growing Cacique family, improve efficiencies, and promote team collaboration.

Products in 80% of U.S. grocery stores

[Photo: Cacique Foods]

Cacique also said it has also been recertified as a great workplace by the independent analysts at Great Place to Work for the sixth year in a row. The company said it earned the honor based on extensive ratings provided directly by its employees through anonymous surveys.

The company said it’s investing in the future of Mexican cuisine by providing educational opportunities for the next generation interested in food manufacturing careers in Amarillo.

 A leader in a billion-dollar category, Cacique says it has at least one of its products in 80% of grocery stores across the nation.

New Amarillo facility

Cacique’s new Amarillo facility is equipped to handle dairy processing, including production of the company’s authentic Mexican-style cheeses and cremas and will grow Cacique’s offerings while getting products on the shelves of even more stores nationwide.

The 200,000-square-foot facility will feature technology making it the most state-of-the-art dairy processing facility in the United States, the company said. The building is made up of seven miles of stainless-steel pipe and is the equivalent to nearly three-and-a-half football fields with production capacity to support the company’s growth plan for years to come.

Supporting food manufacturing curriculum

Through honoring its 50th anniversary and the opening of the new location in Amarillo, Cacique is celebrating the past, present, and future of Hispanic cooking in America by helping ignite a passion for Hispanic cooking for decades to come. With $35,000 contributions to both Amtech Career Academy and Amarillo College that support food manufacturing curriculums, Cacique is hoping to spark a passion for Hispanic food among the next generation in the Amarillo community.

“The contributions from Cacique have already made an impact on our students here in Amarillo,” said Jay Barrett, Principal from AmTech Career Academy. “We are creating a curriculum that will allow students to get the hands-on experience they need to graduate and start a career in manufacturing—we hope at Cacique!”

“We’re thankful that Cacique has already invested in our community through our students,” said David Hall, Dean of Technical Education at Amarillo College. “The donation will give opportunity to even more students to have a successful career in food manufacturing.”

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