La Tortilleria

In the mid-1990s, brothers Dan, Nat and Phillip Calhoun were running a landscaping business in Winston-Salem when they noticed that their Latino employees had no local sources for the fresh tortillas that were a staple back home. Sensing a business opportunity, the brothers began considering the possibilities. The sons of retired missionaries, the Calhouns spent their childhood years in Mexico, giving them a familiarity with Mexican culture and fluency in Spanish. They traveled to Guadalajara to study tortilla-making, then came back home, crunched the numbers, developed a solid business plan, and went to their banker to request a loan.

That’s when they ran into trouble.

“At that time no one here was making tortillas,” explained Dan Calhoun. “The bank wasn’t comfortable taking a chance on us, and they turned us down.” The brothers persisted, however, and opened “La Tortilleria” in 1996, manufacturing corn tortillas and distributing them to local stores. In 1997, Self-Help gave them one of their early major loans through the Small Business Administration (SBA) 7(a) program, providing funds to boost their capacity. More recently, Self-Help and its partner on this project, Bank of America, have helped the Calhouns transition from manufacturing to wholesale distribution of Hispanic foods. An SBA 504 loan
funded their purchase of new equipment and the facility they had been leasing (located in an area targeted for economic revitalization). Today the company employs about 65 people and sells over 2,500 items, many under their Cuervito Morado brand, to small and large wholesale customers, including Wal-Mart. “We aim to promote family and health, provide a good service at fair prices and to help other businesses succeed,” said Dan Calhoun.

Not only have customers been loyal to La Tortilleria, but so have employees. There is very little turnover among the workforce. All workers have health insurance, and the company recently established a 401(k) retirement program. “What we really want,” said Dan, “is for this business to bless the community we live in and the ones we serve.”