RW Garcia
RW Garcia recently opened a new manufacturing facility in Las Vegas to produce its gluten-free, non-GMO crackers and tortilla chips, distributed across the U.S. and internationally.
For the complete story on RW Garcia, see “Naturally better at RW Garcia.”
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Back in 1982, Robert Garcia, president and CEO, RW Garcia Co. Inc., was working for a national tortilla chip company and saw an opportunity to set up a regional distribution system—and eventually opened his own plant. “We went from distributing someone else’s product with our label on it—in other words, private label—to, at one point, deciding that if we were ever going to control our destiny, we would have to start manufacturing a product on our own,” he says. Today, RW Garcia manufactures a full line of natural, non-GMO, gluten-free crackers and tortilla chips.
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The new Las Vegas facility for RW Garcia runs fully automated lines. “The Las Vegas facility is outfitted with the newest equipment from leading manufacturers of chip and cracker making and packaging equipment,” says Genelle Chetcuti, director of marketing. “The state-of-the-art facility incorporates unique software customized to eliminate equipment variability and to produce products with constant repeatability to the highest quality of standards.” (View an exclusive video of this brand-new line in action.)
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RW Garcia makes tortilla chips and crackers that have lower fat and sodium contents compared to similar products. It also means using oils with a better nutritional profile for frying. Organic and non-GMO ingredients are also key formulation rubrics. While RW Garcia’s yellow and blue tortilla chips get their color from stone-ground yellow and blue corn—ground in the plant. Other ingredients that go into the chips, adding flavor and color, include spinach, tomatoes, beets, onions and carrots. Tortilla chips offered under the RW Garcia brand include:
- Dippers: Veggie, Blue Corn, Sweet Potato
- MixtBag: Yellow & Blue, Yellow & Red, Salsa, Veggie
- Big Bag Yellow Corn and Blue Corn Tortilla Chips
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Recently, RW Garcia began making gluten-free crackers, including 3 Seed Harvest. “When gluten-free started to become part of our conversations, we decided that we could make a cracker that was gluten-free, and it wouldn’t be too far out of the realm of our production,” says Robert Garcia. “The growth has been phenomenal.”
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The gluten-free cracker line at RW Garcia includes a 3 Seed Sweet Potato version. Genelle Chetcuti notes that the crackers are a big seller through Costco in Canada. The seeds within the cracker matrix are chia, flax and black sesame. As in all of its products, the primary base is corn, with nutritional and flavor diversity contributed by sweet potatoes.
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Robert Garcia believes in using a light touch when it comes to salt in order to let the natural flavor of the ingredients come through. “Clean” food is a primary industry trend today, notes Genelle Chetcuti, with more people analyzing packages—keeping tabs on the negatives, like fat and sodium, but also looking for positives, like nutritional seed and vegetable content.
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Popularity of kale has grown tremendously over the past couple of years—something not lost on RW Garcia. “Over the last five or six years, we’ve been working on interesting inclusions in the tortilla chips to make a unique and different type of snack,” says Genelle Chetcuti. This has led to using vegetables like kale in the substrate, along with chia, flax and sesame seeds.
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RW Garcia was the first U.S. snack manufacturer certified by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) some 15 years ago. “If somebody wants to sell product to us, they have to meet that standard,” says Robert Garcia. “All of our suppliers are certified, vetted and audited—either by ourselves personally or a third party.” RW Garcia has nationwide distribution in the U.S. The company was also the first corn snack company to gain Non-GMO Project verification. The move to non-GMO was partially instigated by a desire to meet EU product standards. Garcia notes that about 10 percent of the company’s product is exported overseas. Distribution in Canada goes through retailers like Costco and Whole Foods.
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“The consumer trend toward healthier snacking has contributed to the growth of the RW Garcia brand year-over-year for the past five years, and because of this, each of our sales categories has shown double-digit growth,” says Robert Garcia. “In five years, our goal is to be twice as big as we are right now,” says Genelle Chetcuti. “We’re aiming for 100 percent growth in RW Garcia brand placement and sales, with continued extension into Asia and Europe.”