Pro's Ranch Market Entering Texas

ONTARIO, Calif. -- Pro & Sons, Inc., a family-owned independent here that caters to Mexican-American shoppers, is exporting its Pro's Ranch Market concept to El Paso, Texas later this year.

The 60,000-square-foot store it will open in El Paso will be Pro & Sons' ninth unit, and the first outside its current operating territory of California and Arizona.

"The Hispanic market in the U.S. has been truly underserved," Pro & Sons president and c.e.o. Mike Provenzano Sr. told Progressive Grocer. "You're going to be seeing more of us as we grow our business."

The El Paso store will open in a building that once housed a Smith's Food & Drug Center and later a Rainbow Foods store. It is tentatively scheduled to open in September or October, the grocer said.

The store will feature a full line of groceries, a from-scratch bakery, full- and self-service meat departments, a tortilleria, aquas frescas, and a wide variety of Mexican cheeses and cremas.

Additionally, customers will have access to a free shuttle service for a two- or three-mile radius around the store.

The company will hold several job fairs this summer in an effort to recruit local talent, Provenzano said.

Pro's Ranch Markets has eight stores -- four in California and four in the Phoenix area. In addition to breaking ground in El Paso, Provenzano said the company plans to open two more locations around Phoenix this year.

Since its inception in 1997, Pro & Sons has grown from a $10 million-a-year business to a $265 million-a-year business with 2,500 employees, said Provenzano. The grocer runs the company with his four sons. "The key to my business model is my family," he said, adding that he also works closely with wholesaler Unified Western Grocers.
-- Jenny McTaggart
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