Aug 14, 2024Foxy-The Nunes Co.’s Tom Nunes remembered
Tom Nunes of The Nunes Co. and Foxy, is being mourned.
Nunes was 95. He died Aug. 5 in Carmel Valley, California. The Nunes Co. markets its vegetables and leafy greens under the Foxy brand. Nunes’ farming career stretched to more than seven decades.
“Tom began his farming career over 70 years ago in the Salinas Valley and is known for his leadership and innovation in the produce industry,” family members said in a company news release.
Conventional and organic Foxy-branded produce is grown on more than 20,000 acres. Third and fourth generation Nunes family members run the company.
The Nunes Co. grows a variety of vegetables, including broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, asparagus, leafy greens, kale, cabbage, celery, herbs including cilantro and strawberries.
In the early 1930s. Tom Nunes Sr. planted the family’s first seeds in California’s Salinas Valley. The Foxy brand was born when second-generation brothers Bob and Tom Nunes formed the Nunes Company in 1976.
Born into a farming family of Portuguese immigrants in Chualar, California, from a young age Nunes helped his father riding tractor and worked with him in the field. From those humble beginnings, Nunes started two successful grower-shippers and garnered produce industry awards and honors.
Despite the honors, Nunes would have said his greatest achievement and pleasure came from his family, including his three sons, daughter, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, according to a news release.
Nunes graduated from high school in 1946 and attended Stanford University, graduating with an economics degree. He married soon after graduation.
Although farming was not Nunes’s first choice, he recognized he had to make a living to support his growing family and immediately went to work driving a tractor with his father under the mantal of T. Nunes & Son, farming 400 acres of vegetables for various shippers while every night searching for something else to do.
“Despite his many talents and potential career paths, it was the produce industry that ultimately benefited from Tom’s tireless work ethic, leadership, and innovation, “ according to the release.
In 1955, after farming for several years, a friend, Bill “Chopper” Brown, suggested Nunes start a new company growing, harvesting, and shipping Iceberg lettuce. Nunes and each of five other partners invested $5,000 and grew 400 acres of Iceberg lettuce for their new company, Growers Exchange.
Unfortunately, that first year they lost their entire investment. Thanks to a loan from Bruce Church, Growers Exchange survived the second year, and enjoyed success with Nunes as president from 1955-1965. Growers Exchange ultimately grew and shipped out of Salinas, Yuma, and four other locations.
At Growers Exchange, Tom and his brother Bob Nunes began their life-long partnership, working six years together at Growers Exchange. In 1966, they left to form Nunes Bros. of California, an integrated grower-shipper of fresh vegetables.
Nunes Bros. displayed innovation and creativity, pioneering film-wrapped lettuce and using this to launch a joint promotion offering 25 cents off Lawry’s Seasoned Salt on the wrapper of the Nunes Bros. lettuce.
The Salinas Valley Produce Industry recognized Tom’s leadership at Nunes Bros. by electing him to the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California’s board of directors, where was chairman 1967-1968.
After selling the brothers’ company to the United Fruit Co. (Chiquita), the two left the industry, but after no-compete contracts returned five years later to start The Nunes Company, in 1976.
Eventually the Company became an integrated grower-shipper which included shipping, cooling, growing, and harvesting operations.
“We had a great advantage of building a company and then selling it and getting to start over,” Tom once said. “It allowed us to look at what we did right and look at what we did wrong and build a better company.”
Tom Nunes believed that people were the company’s most important asset, and the mutual loyalty and respect was evident as most of the top employees from Nunes Bros. returned to work with Tom and Bob at the new firm.
The company is run by the brothers’ sons, Tom (T4) in sales, David in growing and land base, Jimmy in farming, and Bob, Jr., Bob’s son, in cooling and harvesting. Tom M. Nunes (T5) is also involved. They have been instrumental in growing the company from a modest 1,200 acres to more than 20,000 acres in California, Arizona, and Nevada, according to the release.
The company’s Foxy brand has become recognized globally. Value-added operations, organic production and strawberries extended the reach of the brand in the ensuing years.
In 2018, Tom M. Nunes (T5), representing the third generation of the Nunes family, became president and carries on the traditions and culture created by Tom (T3) and maintained by his father, Tom (T4).
“One of the last things my grandfather said was ‘trust’ was the key to life,” Tom M. Nunes (T5) said in the release. “Grandpa lived that, and you can see it in the loyalty of employees returning to The Nunes Co. after the five-year hiatus, the growers’ willingness to accept a structure built on trust in the company, the many long-term employees, and the customers who trusted that the right high-quality product would be there every time. Our family lost our pillar, and the industry lost an important and influential leader.”
