In 1964, Marvin Davis came to Texas and launched a produce company, that turned out to be a success.

Today, Marvin and son Mike Davis head up Tex Mex Sales LLC in Weslaco, TX, which has become a top year-round supplier of red, white and sweet onions from the Davises’ own farms and those of grower partners.

Mike Davis started working at his father’s shed when he was 8-years-old during summer vacation and holidays. He did almost every job there was in the shed. “That’s how he learned,” said Marvin Davis. “I wanted him to get an education, which he did, but it got in his blood. It’s in his DNA; his mother’s father was a farmer who was one of the pioneers who went down to Mexico as a grower.”

Working in the sheds while others kids were goofing off “made me learn I needed to get an education. I didn’t want to work for minimum wage the rest of my life,” Mike Davis said. “I knew what I wanted to do, I wanted to do onions. At the time we did a lot of cantaloupes, onions and cabbage, and I wanted to specialize in onions and that’s what I tried to do. New Mexico State University had a good onion program which I studied and ag economics. I went to work on the farm in Mexico after graduation for three years, and came up to Texas during our onion season. As we grew, we maneuvered to do more onions and be more retail-oriented. And we’ve done that since 1999 when we bought our first repacking machine.”

Since that time, Tex-Mex Sales has done nothing but grow. The company recently expanded its shed and a project to enclose it, is under way. And another new acquisition is a second drier that will double capacity to dry and store onions from the field, from 1,500 bins to 3,000.

“We’re adding on to our shed here and we’re enclosing and insulating it, it will be done by the time the Mexico/Texas onion season gets started in January,” Mike Davis said. “A lot of the reason for that involves food safety and keeping our product a little cooler in the shed. We’re enclosing it for the dust and insulating for the heat. The way things are, we think we’re probably going to be doing a lot more retail and foodservice business in the future. We’re looking forwad to it and stepping up to the challenge. We have plenty of acres out of Mexico and are increasing our acres out of Texas to be able to accomodate the business that’s coming our way.”

Tex Mex Sales just finished up its deal in New Mexico and has started its smaller program out of Washington state. “We already have a large amount of our acres planted in Mexico and we’ll start planting in Texas around Oct. 1,” Mike Davis said.

Being PrimusLabs GFS, GAP Certified and PTI Compliant, Tex Mex Sales focuses on a program the Davises call “Onion Care,” their term for ceaseless attention to the product they grow and ship.

“Our goal is to give you the perfect onion and that’s what Onion Care is all about,” Mike Davis said. “It’s a process from the field through the shed to give our customers a great looking onion with no mechanical damage and free of defects. That’s simple and that’s our promise.”

“All we want to do is get an order and get it filled and not hear anything more about it,” Marvin Davis said. “Consistent quality and supply make Tex-Mex Sales a one stop shed for retailers looking for onions.”

The Davises are in good shape as far as water for their Texas crop, something many growers cannot say in the drought-parched state. Controlling their own crop means the Davises can guarantee top quality and supply to cover their orders.

After more than a decade of constant growth and expansion, Tex Mex Sales is almost where it wants to be.

“We don’t ever stop. We’d like to sometimes,” Mike Davis joked. “But after we finish the projects that are under way we’ll be where we want to be. Our biggest problem was we needed to be able to store product but we didn’t have the room. We will be able to store/dry 3,000 bins, about 54,000, 50-pound bags. When you want to do things right you have to spend some money. You do the right kind of job for your customer, who ever it is, and that takes care of itself. You get repeat business. You take care of them, they take care of you.”