RW Garcia, family-owned-and-operated leading maker of artisan and all-natural corn-based snacks for more than 30 years, has opened a new 63,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility near Las Vegas, Nevada. The facility, which features the latest in chip and cracker making technologies and brings 80 new jobs to the area, is now fully operational with its first chips off the production lines and shipping out to distributors and retailers.

“We have seen so much growth at RW Garcia over the past few years, and opening this facility in Las Vegas greatly increases our manufacturing capacity, while still offering room for continued growth,” said Robert Garcia, president and CEO of RW Garcia. “The business environment in Las Vegas really drew us in, and we greatly appreciate the willingness of the governor to help facilitate the new plant. We look forward to much success operating this facility in Nevada.”

In recent years, sales of RW Garcia-branded products and growth of the company’s private label business have begun to outpace production at its two current plants, one in San Jose, California, and the other in Lincolnton, North Carolina. The new Las Vegas facility offers the ability to not only meet current demand, but also to accommodate increased manufacturing capacity needs as the company continues to grow. Increased production also allows for greater distribution of RW Garcia branded products into more retail outlets.

Locating the facility in the Las Vegas area offered a number of advantages, including a healthy and supportive business environment and a more centralized location that will enable the company to respond more quickly to customer demand. The new plant is located in Clark County near North Las Vegas, where the company leased an existing facility and spent more than 10 months remodeling the building. Outfitted with the newest equipment from the leading manufacturers of chip and cracker making and packaging equipment, the state-of-the-art facility incorporates unique software customized to eliminate equipment variability and to produce products with constant repeatability to the highest quality of standards. The completion of the new facility will enable the full production rate to increase from 11 million pounds of chips per year to more than 62 million.

RW Garcia has long been a leader on the cutting edge of the healthier snacking trend. RW Garcia’s innovative branded product lines range from Tortatos, the first ever half tortilla chip, half potato chip; to Dippers, corn chips in innovative flavors made for dipping; to twists on traditional tortilla chips, including its MixtBag products; to a variety of corn-based gluten-free crackers. All products are made from wholesome, simple ingredients and contain no trans fats, additives or preservatives and are certified gluten free. Additionally, as the first snack chip company to be verified by the Non-GMO Project, all RW Garcia chips use non-GMO ingredients.