After 85 years, Kansas City tortilla company is shutting down. ‘We’re ready to retire’
Jesse Perez Jr., Dan Perez and Christine (“Chris”) Perez-Kuhlman have never had a job outside their family tortilla business, Perez Food Products.
They’ve never considered working anywhere else.
Their grandfather, Alberto Viramontes-Perez, founded the company in 1939 after moving to the United States from Jalpa, Mexico. In the early ‘60s their father — Jesse Perez — took over, recruiting his children to work after school and on weekends.
But now the Perez siblings are in their 60s and are ready to slow down.
“We’re tired,” sister Chris said with a laugh.
That means Perez Food Products, a staple in the Kansas City Hispanic food scene for 85 years, will shut down at the end of the year.
“There’s a lot of sad people,” Dan said.
Perez Food Products produces an impressive 120,000 tortillas a day, selling to several restaurants in the area (Dixon’s Chili, In-A-Tub, Margarita’s, to name a few) and every grocery store within a 60-mile radius. The company also produces taco shells.
Now a “for sale” sign is posted outside the building.
“We’ve been getting some people saying, ‘What’s going on?’” Dan said.
Regardless, he added, now feels like the ideal stopping point.
“It’s a labor of love. It is a lot of equipment, and there’s a lot of logistics, but we love doing it. We’re on top right now, and we’re ready to retire,” he said.
While each of the Perez siblings have children of their own, none want to take over the family business.
And that’s fine with them, Chris explained, sitting inside the office of the tortilla factory on Southwest Boulevard on a recent Thursday morning, where the scent of boiled corn hung in the air.
“They’re all older, they’re all working,” she said. “It put them through good schools … and we supported that. We gave them a choice.”
Inside the Perez Foods factory
Every morning except Saturdays, the siblings get up at 2 a.m. and head to the industrial building to switch on the humming machines, beginning the mostly automated process. Delivery trucks start arriving at 6 a.m. so they can deliver the corn tortillas to local restaurants by 9.
Starting in the wee morning hours helps combat the heat and humidity, which can interfere with the baking process.
The machines do most of the work, but 10 employees help ensure uniformity. Most of them are family members, too — uncles, spouses.
The corn is cooked in large metal tanks, Dan explained, then soaked overnight. When the crew arrives in the morning for work, they grind the corn into masa, or tortilla dough, which is cooked and packaged.
A series of conveyor belts carry the tortillas from one phase to the next. That day’s work was already finished by the time The Star arrived at 9:30 a.m., the other employees already home, likely snoozing off the early morning.
The Perez way
The Perezes toyed with the idea of selling the company. There was no shortage of “lookers,” as Dan put it. But new owners likely meant alterations to the recipe and production. The Perezes are proud of their simple recipe of water, corn and traces of lime, and they don’t want to take any shortcuts.
“They want to go bigger, which means more people, more product, more machinery,” Dan said. “To keep our name on the product, I would have to be here.”
Their father, the elder Jesse Perez, used to scoff at people when they suggested he add preservatives to his tortillas. Not the Perez way.
Sitting in the factory’s office at 2826 Southwest Blvd., the three siblings reminisced over their earliest memories — many of which involved the business. One pulled out a framed, sepia-toned photo of their grandparents. Every Sunday, they’d head over to their grandmother’s for big family dinners.
“There was an endless pot of beans,” Dan recalled. “She fed 50 to 60 people.”
Before their grandfather, Alberto, began selling tortillas, he was part of a mariachi band, performing to passersby on the Country Club Plaza.
To supplement whatever he earned playing music, Alberto began selling warm tortillas from the bed of his truck. When baking proved to be more successful than his mariachi career, he pivoted to grinding corn and pressing masa full time.
Legacy of the family business
Perez Food Products’ first building was on the Westside, not too far from the current factory. In 1958, they occupied the Margarita’s Mexican Restaurant across the street Southwest Boulevard.
When it came time for Alberto to pass his legacy down, he went to each of his 14 children, by birth order, but nobody wanted to take over.
When his youngest son, Jesse Sr., was old enough, he offered the company to him. Jesse accepted.
The Perez family has been cooking in their current spot since 1978. Most of the automated manufacturing process can be attributed to Jesse Sr.’s genius, his children said.
“He was brilliant,” Chris said. “If my dad went to college, I don’t know what he would’ve done. He couldn’t spell very well, but man, he could invent anything.”
In about a month, the siblings will cook their last batch of tortillas in the building. Whatever is left Dec. 31 will be sold. And then?
More family vacations. More time with grandchildren. Fewer 2 a.m. alarms — or none.
Asked about their emotions surrounding leaving behind an 85-year-old legacy, Dan said, “Depression is not one of them.”
Gratitude was a shared sentiment between the three of them: thankfulness for their father, grandfather, and the tortilla factory that provided for their families. And, just as importantly, for their customers.
“We wouldn’t be here 85 years without them,” Jesse Jr. said.