Awards always help, but the Best Professional Career Award granted by the European Society for Social and Cultural Promotion is a big deal. And it is precisely the one received by the company Super-Mex Foods, a family-owned SME located in El Puerto de Santa María, Cádiz. Its main activity is the manufacture of fried corn, called tortilla chips in the US, known as nachos in Spain or Totopos in Mexico.
They make their nachos 100% natural and through the traditional Mexican process under their own brand and also white label. Apart from the products it manufactures, Super-Mex markets a range of Mexican products in formats adapted for the retail channel and the Horeca channel, this range includes wheat tortillas, sauces, chili peppers, seasonings and prepared dishes.
Their nachos, pioneer and star product, are still cooked today just like the first day. They are 100% natural and gluten-free, and are manufactured following the traditional Nixtamal cooking process, derived from the Aztec culture, and subsequent grinding with volcanic stone, methodically and with special attention to detail. All this always taking care of the processes with strict quality controls.
“Our beginnings were complicated and uncertain. When we started the project at the end of the 90s, Mexican food was hardly known or consumed in Spain, and less so in Cádiz, so we had to do a great job of introducing unknown products in an area, since it was very traditional with food. So, to be recognized for that effort so many years later is something very special, and even more so when they give you the award on the company's 25th anniversary”, says Sidney Stockwell, commercial director and assistant manager.
Chávez y Clark was founded in a business incubator in Rota, Cádiz, in 1997 by two American brothers, Bruce Stockwell (who had been in Spain for a few years) and Robert Stockwell (who came with his family from the US to participate in the company). . Bruce had opened a Mexican restaurant (Casa Texas México), which is still in Rota today, where he moved because his clientele was basically from the American military base because little was known about its culture and gastronomy in Spain.
When Robert arrived in 1996, they expanded the business: from a restaurant to the manufacture and distribution of Mexican products. “The beginnings of the company were very slow and with many difficulties, since it was not only about selling an unknown product, but also about creating a culture of consumption”, recalls Stockwell.
Formats for the retail channel also began to be developed, which began to be introduced in food stores and small local and provincial supermarket chains. Seeing a greater interest in the market, the company began to add new products, although they were not of its own brand, to expand the range and its activity became that of a manufacturer and distributor of Mexican products for both the horeca and retail channels. which is your current business model.
Today they sell nationally, including the Balearic and Canary Islands, and export to several countries such as Portugal, Greece, Malta, Cyprus, Italy, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Andorra and Israel. Its customers are points of sale (supermarkets, cash
Beyond its products, Super-Mex also stands out for its involvement in social actions. A clear example of this is the contributions they make to the Food Bank. “We started donations during the pandemic seeing the great need for help in the area. It is our way of contributing something more to Cadiz society, supporting those most in need with something basic such as food”, says Stockwell.
Looking to the future, they want to resume many projects that, due to the great uncertainty that has occurred, they had left on standby. “Now that it finally seems that we have some normality, we will continue to advance with the development of products, the opening of new markets and the consolidation of current markets to continue bringing the best Mexican products to consumers. "Let's see if we can make nachos as common on the table as the potato omelette."
