At 2 a.m., the first trucks are leaving and on their way to Laredo, Alice and Corpus Christi.

They are filled with all varieties of fruits and vegetables that have made their way to Nicho Produce in Edinburg from California, Mexico and origins further south. The skies are seeing the first glimmers of light when the remainder of the 30-plus truck fleet is leaving Nicho’s just off north Closner. Those trucks are heading to retail destinations closer to home in the Rio Grande Valley.

“All trucks are out by 6 a.m.,” said Tommy Villarreal, the president and chief executive officer of Nicho Produce. 

He is sitting in the office once occupied by his father and founder of the company, Dionicio, whose nickname is the company’s namesake. Nicho Villarreal didn’t have big computer screens to track deliveries as his son does today. Nicho began the company in 1969 with three delivery trucks and his wife, Mirtala, serving as a bookkeeper and confidante. It’s the same location where Tommy Villarreal today oversees the family business with words of wisdom from his late father and mentor still ringing true.

“Keep your word and honor agreements,” Tommy said. “You’re only as good as your word.”

Outgrowing Home Base

Thoughts of his father still stir emotions in the son more than five years after Nicho’s passing.

The sentiments and nostalgia connected to the produce plant intensify when realizing that Nicho’s will leave its sturdy and old site in 2024. Nicho’s is moving to a new facility it will build at Edinburg’s North Industrial Park. The small business that got its start delivering to small independent grocers in the Valley has outgrown its present quarters.

“We’ve added on and added on as much as we can,” Villarreal said. “We realized that isn’t going to solve all of our problems.”

Nicho Produce with its new 50,000-square-foot cold storage and distribution facility in north Edinburg will provide quick access to U.S. Highway 28. From there, it’s a convenient starting point for deliveries throughout the triangle of deep South Texas. The new facility will lead to greater efficiencies. It will vastly increase the company’s space capacities with higher ceilings that will allow upward storage of shipments before deliveries.

All of those modern updates won’t make it any easier to leave what has always been Tommy Villarreal’s second home.

“I grew up here,” he said. “I worked with my dad here. It’s the only place I’ve ever worked.”

Wide Reach

Walking through his present 34,000-square-foot facility, Villarreal moves from one large room to another, including cold storage areas which contain crates of Peruvian tangerines and Asian pears from California. 

Other rooms contain bananas and vegetables like tomatoes, spinach and broccoli. All colors and textures of the fruits and vegetable pyramid are at Nicho’s. Stickers on the side of boxes show the reach and diversity the produce’s final destinations. One box displays a label for delivery to a Laredo hospital. Another is going to a school in Harlingen. Several boxes are ready for delivery to a network of charter schools in the Valley. Nicho’s also does packaging and pre-cuts salads onsite for several South Texas school districts. 

Big box stores like H-E-B and Wal-Mart are also regular customers. Large grocers depend on Nicho’s to make spot and urgent deliveries when produce sells quickly and delivery from their own systems may be a few days away.

“They will tell us, ‘We’re running short from our distribution center and we need this product and we need it today,'” Villarreal said. 

There’s another growth market for Nicho’s and it would seem to come from an unlikely source. Dollar General stores are selling essential fruits and vegetables in reaching a niche market that does not have fast access to an H-E-B or a Wal-Mart. There’s a large cold storage room at Nicho’s dedicated to the 62 Dollar General stores across South Texas that Nicho’s reaches.

“We’re that middleman,” Villarreal said. “We put loads together and consolidate everything and get it delivered to our customers.”

For now, it’s done from what he calls “an old-style building,” a business he owns with his sisters, Laura Villarreal and Sylvia White. They keep in close touch with their little brother from their homes in San Antonio. Over 50 years have passed since Nicho Villarreal started his modest business. Tommy Villarreal smiles when asked what his father would think of how the family business has grown and where it’s headed.

“He would be proud,” Villarreal said.

Keep your word and be on time. Words of the wise that have paid off.