In Depth: Small Business Person of the Year Award 2001
	From the June 29, 2001 print edition

Small Business Awards

Chip off the old block

Lessons from his father helped Murillo learn about hard work

Anne Robertson

·  Overall winner: Robert Murillo,

Mi Ranchito Mexican Food Products Inc.

Robert Murillo's father had a way of inspiring a steady work ethic in his eight children. He would give them a generous gift that would delight them.

Then he'd tell them that, guess what, the recipient owes his dad the cost of the present. So each child would have to work after school at the family business, a Mexican restaurant in Phoenix, to pay it off.

Murillo, tall and stout with an ample dark mustache, a ready grin and spirited brown eyes, credits his dad's sly agenda with helping him succeed in work and in life.

"Dad got me a car that was $1,500 and he paid $1,000 of it," he says. "He always had us indebted so we'd work for him and stay out of trouble; I didn't smoke or really drink because I didn't have time.

"He has been the biggest influence in my life."

Murillo is chief executive of Mi Ranchito Mexican Food Products of Phoenix, which makes snack items such as nacho, jalapeno and salsa-flavored tortilla chips, and bean and cheese dips, for supermarkets and other venues. The company also makes its tortillas in imaginative shapes, from cowboy boots to Christmas trees and stars.

Murillo owns the company with one of his brothers, Rudy. Rudy recently underwent successful treatment for prostate cancer at the Mayo Clinic, thanks to connections Robert made through the business.

He had met a purchasing agent at the clinic through the Grand Canyon Minority Supplier Development Council, who helped get Rudy into the renowned clinic for treatment.

"The message is network. We got him into the clinic because of it," Robert Murillo says. "You have to get out and be active. I belong to the Phoenix and Hispanic chambers, and the Glendale chamber."

Murillo says he and his brother have become closer since the ordeal.

"He keeps thanking me every day, but I wish he'd let it go," Murillo says.

Mi Ranchito was the name of the family restaurant started by his father in 1960, when the family was living at 29th Avenue and Latham Street. The Murillo clan was one of few Mexican families living in the area at the time.

"It was an all-white neighborhood," Murillo says, though more Mexican families moved in over the years. "The kids at grammar school made fun of us because we were different."

Murillo went to work full time for his father after graduating from high school in 1969, when a friend suggested they join the Army. It was 1970 and the Vietnam War was nearing its conclusion. He and his friend did not have to go into combat, but they did get shipped to Fort Benning, Ga., to learn to jump from planes.

It would not prove to be Murillo's favorite activity.

"They had to kick me out of the plane every time. I would stand at the door and never went out on my own," he says. "I did not want to jump out of a perfectly good plane."

However, Murillo says he did enjoy playing golf with the base commander, a sport he had learned from his father as a child.

After the Army, Murillo returned to Phoenix and the family eatery. His father decided to try corn tortilla manufacturing, and the food production company that Murillo runs today was born.

Murillo, his father and Rudy made only the tortillas for a while, then in 1978 expanded to a bigger factory, which included state-of-the-art automatic fryers to make the chips.

A year later, Murillo met his wife, Susan, on a blind date and married her the same year. Life was good.

"The business grew through 1994, we had 50 employees and a stronghold with the managers at the local supermarket chains stores," he says. "The managers felt there was value in supporting local manufacturers.

"But that changed in 1995 to 1996 because of mergers and acquisitions," he says.

Business became harder with stores carrying more national labels such as Frito Lay and Tostidos.

The company was losing business when Ernesto Salazar, then president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, told Murillo to meet more people and maintain an open mind.

He learned from someone at the Arizona Department of Commerce about opportunities with the state's penal system.

"Our safety net was finding out that the prison system in Arizona bought a lot of chips," he says. "I found a distribution company that handles food for it, and partnered with them. Now we do more business in the state; we've survived."

The Murillo’s recently converted part of their manufacturing plant into a Mexican deli featuring food to go. The dining division seats about 30 people and also offers catering.

"We were scared to death five years ago that we would go out of business." Robert Murillo says. "When you have had that fear in your life, you never want to feel it again, so we've diversified to protect ourselves."

Two years ago, Murillo's parents signed over full ownership of the company to the brothers.

"My dad's dream became my dream, too," Robert Murillo says. "When you are your own boss you have to nurture every single day -- it's truly satisfying."

Arizona Republic Business Clip