Hispanic food company Cacique broke ground on its new $88 million dairy processing plant in Amarillo, Texas. According to the company, the new 200,000 square-foot facility will help meet the growing demand for Cacique’s high-quality products nationwide. (Photo from abc7 News, Gil de Cardenas, CEO of Cacique.)
Cacique plans to begin operation at the new facility in the fall of 2022 and expects to create approximately 200 new full-time jobs.
The new facility, which is being constructed at 8647 S. Georgia St. will be equipped to handle dairy processing, including the production of the company’s authentic Mexican-style cheeses, cremas, and yogurts.
“After an extensive, national search, we are very happy to select Amarillo, Texas as the location of our new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility,” said Gil de Cardenas, CEO of Cacique.
“We are grateful to the Governor’s office, Randall County, and the City of Amarillo for their hospitality, work, and support throughout the site selection process and in helping us usher in the next era of growth for our company. From our first visit, we knew that Amarillo was special. It’s a vibrant, thriving, and diverse melting pot of cultures, and we’re thrilled to become part of this local community as we put down some new Cacique family roots in the great state of Texas,” Cardenas added.
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The project benefits from receiving a Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF) grant of $1,132,000 from the office of Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
“I am proud to welcome Cacique to Texas and excited for the incredible impact they will make on our state’s economic success story,” said Governor Abbott. “Amarillo is a natural home for Cacique, as the Texas Panhandle is a magnet for the manufacturing and food processing industries. Thank you to Cacique for choosing to invest in the Lone Star State. I look forward to working with them as we usher in a more prosperous future for all Texans.”
In addition to the TEF grant, the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation (AEDC) and the City Council of Amarillo recently approved an incentive package for the expansion project.
“We are honored that Cacique chose to make Amarillo their new home,” said Kevin Carter, President and CEO of the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation. “This project will have a large-scale economic impact with $88 million in new capital expenditures and the creation of approximately 200 new full-time jobs. The addition of Cacique will help us continue to build Amarillo into a food processing powerhouse.”
The plant will feature state-of-the-art technology, allowing Cacique to increase its overall capacity and meet the growing demand for its market-leading products, the company said in a news release.
“The addition of Cacique to the Amarillo community is another example of significant economic progress for the city and the Amarillo area,” said Amarillo Mayor Ginger Nelson. “This is a multimillion-dollar investment in Amarillo that will result in the creation of approximately 200 full-time jobs. Amarillo continues to grow with an economy that is one of the strongest in the state, if not the country. With an impressive company such as Cacique now calling Amarillo home, Amarillo’s commitment to a strong and diverse economy continues.”
In addition to expanding production capacity with the introduction of the new plant, Cacique intends to increase R&D to drive product innovation and continue to sustainably enhance its national presence as part of its long-term growth strategy.
Cacique operates multiple complementary facilities that enable efficient production at scale, including a dairy processing plant in the City of Industry, California, a meat processing plant in Cedar City, Utah, and a salsa processing plant in Gilbert, Arizona. The Amarillo dairy processing facility comes on the heels of investment by Boston-based investment manager The Baupost Group, LLC, part of a round of funding earlier this year to accelerate the brand’s continued rapid growth nationwide.