Tortilla maker moving production facility

The largest tortilla maker in Las Vegas is planning a move from its longtime home on Stocker Street near Owens Avenue to a new facility a few miles away.

Tortillas Inc., makers of Los Arcos and La Mazorca tortillas, hopes to break ground on a $3.4 million, 20,000-square-foot factory and store at Puebla Street and North Las Vegas Boulevard, before the end of this month.

"All we're waiting on is the financing," said company president Gustavo "Gus" Gutierrez.

Gutierrez and his father, Jose Gutierrez, founded the company as Los Arcos Tortillas in 1979. The company moved to its current location at 1703 Stocker St. in 1985, eventually spreading into seven buildings on the site. Gutierrez has been planning this expansion for the better part of three years.

The company needed to expand its client base and output to pay for the expense of growth and only recently achieved that goal.

"We're going from a mom and pop operation to a major corporate setting," he said.

All operations will be contained in the new Spanish mission-style building.

Gutierrez is also spending $700,000 to purchase new equipment for the company. Tortillas Inc. currently makes about 500,000 corn tortillas each day, but lacks the capability to make its flour tortillas in-house.

With the new equipment, the company will be able to crank out about 9,600 flour tortillas an hour, 24 hours a day. When Gutierrez and his father started the company 22 years ago, each tortilla was made by hand, producing about 1,200 per hour.

"We had a machine putting out one tortilla at a time," Gutierrez said. "Prehistoric times."

The company contracts with many of the major hotels and restaurants in the area and has spread into Utah. At one point, Tortillas Inc. shipped tortillas as far east as Chicago and Mississippi.

"We use only the best, freshest, highest grade material," Gutierrez said. "The big national competitors have to have a 30 day shelf life and you can really taste the preservatives."