Mi Mama's Tortillas in South Omaha is investing about $4.5 million to expand its plant, and the company expects to hire more than 20 people over the next five years as demand grows.
Nationally, tortilla sales could be called the best thing since sliced bread, according to the Tortilla Industry Association. With about $9 billion in sales last year, tortillas have outpaced the sales of white and whole-wheat breads, bagels, croissants, muffins and pita bread, said Jim Kabbani, the association's executive director.
Annual sales could reach $10 billion before the end of 2011, Kabbani said.
A growing Hispanic population in the United States and interest in low-fat foods with fewer preservatives have helped fuel annual sales growth of approximately 10 percent since the early 1990s, Kabbani said.
Nationwide restaurant chains like McDonald's, Burger King and Subway have picked up on the tortilla craze.
“It's been a hell of an industry to be a part of,” said Patrick Sharrar, Mi Mama's general manager, who has been at the company for 15 years.
Often made with corn and used for Mexican and Central American dishes like enchiladas, burritos and tacos, the tortilla also is made from white and whole-wheat flour. The discs wrap everything from ham and cheese sandwiches to omelets, beans and vegetables.
Mi Mama's makes low-carb, whole grain, organic, jalapeno cheese, tomato, sesame seed, vegetable herb, spinach and red pepper tortillas as well as its white flour tortillas, Sharrar said.
The plant is small enough to quickly change its production line, allowing it to make several private-label brands as well as its own Mi Mama's brand for supermarkets, restaurants and food service outlets like schools and hospitals, Sharrar said. The company distributes to outlets throughout the Midwest.
Rick Fox, owner of Julio's West at 123rd Street and West Center Road, said his restaurant has used Mi Mama's tortillas for about 10 years.
“We like them because they're locally owned. I can talk to Pat whenever I need to,” Fox said of Sharrar.
The 36 people who work at Mi Mama's plant, 828 S. 17th St., make about 900,000 tortillas a day.
Workers place flour, water and other ingredients in huge mixing vats, pull out the dough and place it in machinery that shapes it into balls, which are plopped onto conveyor belts, flattened by heated presses and baked in 500-degree ovens. The tortillas roll into a cooling chamber before employees bag, box and ship them.
Mi Mama's, which is privately owned by a Chicago-based company, doesn't release its annual sales figures, but the company is a small part of the industry, Sharrar said. Mexico-based Gruma S.A.B. de C.V. leads the tortilla market with its Mission and Guerrero brands.
The late Marcella “Shirley” Hedlund and her husband, Robert, founded Mi Mama's in 1983 at 24th and F Streets. They began selling their tortillas to friends and family members in the restaurant and grocery businesses.
By the time the Hedlunds sold the company about 10 years later to former owners of the Milton G. Waldbaum egg-processing company in Wakefield, Neb., Mi Mama's was distributing to several states in the Midwest.
In 2002, Arthur and Joan Valesquez of Chicago purchased Mi Mama's. The Valesquez family also owns tortilla-maker Azteca Foods in Chicago.
The family is committed to Mi Mama's future, Sharrar said. Part of that commitment means investing about $2.5 million in equipment, spending about $2 million to add 15,000 square feet to the 24,000 square-foot plant and increasing the workforce, starting with 10 more employees in 2011.
Tax-increment financing from the City of Omaha and state incentives from the Nebraska Advantage Act will help finance the expansion, Sharrar said.
Contact the writer:
444-1117, joe.ruff@owh.com
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