Our Family's Passion — The History of The Nunes Company, Inc.

Growing and shipping produce is a risky business. Often the vegetables are sold for less than the cost of growing them, and a company can fall by the wayside in a single down market.  But to Tom and Bob Nunes, those risks are out weighed by the opportunities.  Finding those opportunities has made The Nunes Company, Inc., a pioneer in the produce industry.

But pioneering is nothing new to the Nunes brothers; it is a tradition that was established by their father, Tom Nunes, Sr., who immigrated to America from the Azores islands near Portugal in 1907.  Nunes later moved to the Salinas Valley and took up farming in the early 1930’s.

Nunes eventually became a large and successful grower.  He was one of the founders of the Salinas Marketing Cooperative and the Salinas Lettuce Farmers Cooperative, which are two local vegetable shipping organizations owned by the growers that supply them.  His sons, Tom and Bob, worked with him on the ranches while they were growing up.

Both Tom and Bob Nunes went to local Salinas schools and later attended Stanford University, where they studied economics.  After finishing college, young Tom began farming with his father under the partnership of T. Nunes and Son.  But in 1955 he helped found Growers Exchange, Inc.  After his college graduation a few years later, Bob spent six years in the produce industry before joining his brother, Tom, at Growers Exchange in 1959. 

The Nunes brothers continued with Growers Exchange until 1966, when they left the company to form Nunes Brothers of California. They grew and shipped lettuce, cauliflower, and celery from the Salinas area, and lettuce and cantaloupes from the Imperial Valley.  

Always looking for new and better ways to do the job, the Nunes brothers were among the first to film-wrap lettuce.  The idea was very successful and brought their firm to the attention of the United Fruit Sales Corporation. Tom and Bob sold their operation to United Fruit, the company famous for Chiquita-brand bananas, in 1968.   Both men stayed on as managers of the new operation until August 1970, when they did something that stunned their produce industry contemporaries-they retired.  Tom was 41 and Bob was 39 years of age.

By 1976 both men had become bored with retirement and began to look to the produce business again.  They thought there might be a place for a premium–type package in the lettuce industry and formed a new firm, The Nunes Company, Inc.   In 1988, The Nunes Company hired actress-model Brooke Shields to star in television commercials promoting Foxy brand lettuce.  Over the next 12 years the company would spend over $20 million advertising and promoting Foxy brand vegetables to consumers throughout the United States and Pacific Rim.

The Nunes Company began operating with 1,200 crop acres.  Today, with millions of dollars worth of equipment and plants in Salinas, Oxnard, the Imperial Valley and Yuma, Arizona, the fully integrated grower/shipper handles more than 20,000 crop acres of various fresh vegetable items annually.

Continuing the legacy started by Tom Nunes, Sr. in the 1930’s, the third and fourth generations of the Nunes family are firmly in place at The Nunes Company.  Bob’s son, Bob Nunes, Jr. oversees all cooling and harvesting operations.  Tom’s eldest son, Tom Jr., oversees sales and marketing; and Tom’s two younger sons, David and Jim, work in the company’s growing operations.  David oversees all growing operations, with Jim concentrating on Salinas Valley and Huron growing operations.  In 1999, Tom M. Nunes, who represents the fourth generation of the Nunes family and is the son of Tom Jr., was hired to oversee all day-to-day harvesting operations.

The Nunes Company continues the Nunes family tradition of produce industry pioneering with innovative marketing strategies that have brought its premium labels, Foxy and Tubby, widespread consumer recognition.  Turning risk into opportunity has made The Nunes Company, Inc., an industry leader.