From Goya Heir to Investor: Andy Unanue Empowers Families and Hispanic Leaders

AUA Private Equity Partners has deployed over $600 million of capital in the consumer products and services sectors. Most of those funds have gone to family-owned businesses, businesses with Hispanic owners, or companies that benefit from significant growth of the US Hispanic Market.

AUA managing partner Andy Unanue knows something about family-owned Hispanic-oriented businesses since his Spanish grandparents, Don Prudencio and Doña Carolina Unanue, started their own small business in 1936. Today, that company is Goya Foods, Inc., the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the United States.

As an elementary school student, he didn’t quite understand that his family owned Goya or that his dad was the boss. He simply enjoyed spending weekends with his dad at the company’s Brooklyn headquarters (now based in New Jersey), exploring the warehouse and spending time with his father in the offices. As Unanue grew older, he spent his summers helping out as needed before taking on an official job as a category buyer and purchasing director after graduating from college.

Unanue later served as president of Goya de Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic before serving five years as the chief operating officer and corporate vice president of Goya Foods. Over the years, across different locations and departments, Unanue saw one common thread—Goya was united by its culture of service.

“My parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins formed close relationships as we worked in the family business, and we were always taught to work hard, to see it as our privilege, and to give back,” he explains.

Together, they launched Goya Gives, a program that supports charities, awards scholarships, and promotes cultural and community events. Goya regularly donates food to food banks and shelters after natural disasters, with its Can Do campaign donating 1.5 million pounds of food to those in need.

Through his experience at Goya and the impact he was able to have on the company and community, Unanue remains a strong advocate for family businesses. “When done well, family businesses have a tremendous impact on families and their communities and are exceptional companies to grow,” he says. “They’re special organizations, and they are the backbone of the US economy.”

In fact, according to Fortune, nearly 90 percent of American companies, including Fidelity Investments, Ford, Walmart, and Chick-fil-A, are family-owned or controlled. Together, they generate over half of the nation’s gross domestic product and provide almost 60 percent of US jobs.

In 2004, Unanue took a somewhat rare step for a businessman with his last name—he officially left Goya Foods. Although he departed to start his family office and, later, AUA, Unanue had his family’s full support. As Goya evolved, its success enabled many in the family to pursue other ventures.

“As we started to find some success and build wealth, we turned into an enterprising family,” he shares. “Our success with Goya enabled many of us to pursue endeavors outside the family business, but we still stay connected to Goya and the lessons we learned about community and giving back.”

At AUA, Unanue and his partners David Benyaminy, Kyce Chihi, and Steven Flyer work primarily with business owners who are seeking liquidity, approaching a transition, or are wanting help to maximize the value of their organization. In some ways, Unanue is encouraging the leaders of AUA’s partner companies to borrow from the Goya playbook.

“Every family in business will, at some point, have family members who run the company, some who leave, and others who want nothing to do with the business…but they are all part of the family,” he says. “We help these families become enterprising family units that can manage the business, exit at the right time, and then move on to pursue their passions, whether that’s philanthropy, further entrepreneurship, or other endeavors.”

AUA has developed deep experience in partnering with families, investing in their businesses, and working to create returns for stakeholders while maintaining the importance of family legacy. Since Unanue has expertise in reaching the Hispanic and Latino population—which accounts for 54 percent of US population growth, according to a 2022 University of California Los Angeles report—AUA has had success working with Hispanic-owned companies or those with a majority Hispanic workforce. Current and past partners include Weaver Popcorn, Western Smokehouse, BistroMD, Westminster Pet Products, Noga Dairies, and Raymundos Food Group.

An example of how AUA works with companies is its partnership with a family that was working in the frozen and refrigerated food space. The thriving company was facing two transitions. First, its leaders were preparing to hand off the business from one generation to the next. Second, the company needed to find a bigger facility to accommodate its growth. There was just one problem—the two generations disagreed about whether or not to take on such a large project given the need for outside capital.

Unanue and his partners brought the company into the AUA family, advised its leaders, bought the company, supplemented its management team with additional operational expertise, and moved to the new facility. The founder’s son stayed on as CEO, and the family retained 40 percent of what was at the time a $35 million business. Four years later, AUA sold the company for more than $200 million, and the family walked away with more money than they had ever thought possible.

The team at AUA enjoys watching as members of each family they work with reach their goals. “We have the privilege of making a real impact as we work with families and help them transform into an enterprising family. After the transition, each member has the resources and support to pursue whatever they want in life,” he explains.

Unanue is confident that his company is making a positive difference for family-owned businesses. Almost every family that AUA has partnered with has later invested in its private equity fund.

“When the companies we help complete an exit, the owners often tag some of the proceeds for us to invest in other family-run businesses because they see the impact it has had in their lives,” Unanue says. “And that’s what it’s all about—giving back to the community.”