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A Mexican Express success

Ian Young and his Mexican Express food business is perfecting the ‘gobble to go’ concept.

Ian Young, Mexican ExpressIan Young is nothing if not adaptable. Since 1991, the amiable food manufacturer and his Mexican Express brand have supplied the market with everything from taco seasonings, ‘squeezy’ cheeses, Jalapeno salsa, heat n’ go nachos packs, corn chips, to pasta sauces, quince paste, custards, olives and pickled onions.

Eighteen years down the track however, his food manufacturing business is lean, mean and focussed - a well-oiled business with a reputation for quality niche market food production.

Ian and his Mexican Express story began in the 1980s with a handful of popular Mexican eateries around town and a quest for consistency.

Ian was junior director of a restaurant group that owned Cha-Chi’s at Glen Osmond, Zappata’s in North Adelaide and the now-defunct Cactus Café in the city. With a staff of more than 90, Ian said one of the biggest challenges for the restaurant group was to retain consistency of product and flavours across the trio of restaurants.

Mexican Express was initially established to provide the restaurant group with that consistency – a range of niche Mexican food products that formed the backbone of the three menus.

However, fate stepped in as it often does,and the restaurant group disbanded while Mexican Express was in its infancy. Ian took Mexican Express and the other directors each took a restaurant.

Ian wasted no time building his food manufacturing dream, taking on new partners and securing a major Victorian contract for Mexican Express’ famous tomato salsa. Before long, Mexican Express was Australia’s largest manufacturer of food service salsa in Australia, supplying clubs, pubs and café’s across the nation.

Next followed pushes into big event catering, with Mexican Express stands selling tacos, nachos and burritos at sports stadiums, rock concerts and Royal Shows; a popular heat n’ go nachos product; and a range of shelf-stable seasonings, liquid cheeses, sauces and other products for the Australian and international food service industry.

However, after taking a long, hard look at the business and what his clients really wanted, Ian decided in 2002 to focus Mexican Express’ efforts to two key ‘tracks’ – dairy and tomato.

Today, Mexican Express supplies a range of liquid cheeses, cheese sauces, pasta sauces and other dairy and tomato products to quick service restaurants, the bakery industry, the food service industry and multi-site operators in Australia, the United Arab Emigrates and Asia.

A staff of 12 produce about 40 tonnes of good quality ‘gobble to go’ niche products each week. As part of its commitment to delivering a quality product, Mexican Express sources its major ingredients from leading Australian manufacturers. For example, the tomatoes for its salsa products are sourced from the fertile soils of the South East of Adelaide.

Mexican Express is now forging ahead with plans to build a state-of-the-art computerised production plant and processing plant at the businesses Dudley Park manufacturing headquarters.

The $2 million plant – which Ian says will be the only one of its kind in Australia that can both cook and process food products in one continuous line - is on track to be operational by the end of next year.

Ian is proof that regularly re-assessing and researching the market can be the key to success.

"You don’t want to jump around like a cat on a hot tin roof, but you need consistency,” he says.

He believes while mechanisation and specialisation are important, "understanding your market so you can supply what people want” is critical.

"Where we fit into the market is being flexible and being able to supply relatively small amounts of product. While we can produce a minimum of a couple of tonne of product, many plants produce around eight tonne an hour!”

Ian believes Mexican Express is in the right place for continued growth.

"South Australia is definitely the food state; the food bowl of Australia. And while the food industry has been through its lulls, it’s looking good. We’ve got some good players.”

Ian believes specialisation will be the way of the future for food producers in South Australia.

"I think food businesses will increasingly specialise more within their own ‘tracks’, because clients want good quality products developed within a safe, repeatable production environment.”

Want to know more?

Contact
Ian Young (left)
Mexican Express
p +61 8 8340 3117
e ian@mexicanexpress.com.au