Lemonis my name is marcus lemonis. And i risk my own money to save struggling businesses. Were not gonna wake up every morning wondering if we have a job. Were gonna wake up every morning wondering how many jobs we have to do. Its not always pretty. Everythings gonna change everything. But i do it to save jobs. And i do it to make money. This. Lets go to work. Is the profit. In 2000, after years of working multiple jobs, Adelo Ramirez used his life savings to open up los gemelos, a small mexican eatery in port chester, new york. Woman plantains and tortillas. Lemonis authentic family recipes drew crowds. But most popular of all were his freshly made tortillas, so popular that in 2006, he started manufacturing them for sale to local Grocery Stores. Adelo were making lots of money. As you can see, we have 22 of the tortilla market here. Lemonis and before long, revenue was approaching the 500,000 mark. Man very good taste right here. Lemonis but then a much bigger tortilla brand expanded to the east coast, putting adelo on his heels. Adelo like, right now, im out of cash. Lemonis helpless to compete with their marketing dollars, hes seen his sales plummet and his dream of a National Business tossed into jeopardy. Adelo [bleep] lemonis this company came to my attention in a slightly unusual way. I happen to have a friendship with the comedian, george lopez. One day, he said to me, would you be kind enough to sit down with a guy that could really use your help . Now, im happy to do george a favor. But i also know that the hispanic food market is huge, around 18 billion just in the u. S. , and its only getting bigger. So today, im meeting adelo at the restaurant where it all started. How are you . Im marcus. Yeni hi. Lemonis nice to meet you. Yeni nice to meet you. Lemonis hi. Nice to meet you. Leticia hi. My name is leticia. Lemonis im marcus. Nice to meet you. Adelo mr. Lemonis, i mean. Lemonis no, marcus. Adelo oh, marcus, okay. Lemonis nice meeting you, adelo. Adelo nice meeting you. Lemonis this is a big place. Adelo it is. Lemonis whats all the wood for . Adelo we actually cook carne asada ribs and chicken. This is the wood oven. Lemonis oh, so you literally do it like a straightup campfire. Adelo yeah. And this is it. This is our kitchen. I have this passion to cook. And ive been in the cooking business since i was 14 years old. I love it. You know, were were not the texmex kind of place. Lemonis yeah. Adelo were more authentic. And we want to keep it that way. Lemonis yeah. Adelo the articles always talk about how authentic it is. This. This is when we first opened. Lemonis where did you get the money to open this . Adelo i worked 3 years. Lemonis saved up money. Adelo and saved all that money. I used to sleep for 4 hours. I had my route at 18, my produce route. Lemonis so you were delivery. Adelo yes. Then i also had a fulltime job as a deli clerk from 6 00 a. M. To 7 00 p. M. Lemonis so you were working two jobs. Adelo and then one on sunday. Lemonis so three jobs. Adelo yeah. I thought i was rich. Lemonis and you saved how much money . Adelo 40,000. Lemonis thats a lot of money. Its not hard for me to imagine the amount of sacrifices that adelos had to make along the way to achieving his dream. But as hes describing it to me, hes doing it with a real smile on his face, not one ounce of selfpity or bitterness. Shows me a lot about his strong work ethic and his attitude. So you took the 40,000, you opened your place, and youre doing business. Adelo yes. Lemonis making money. Adelo and its awesome. Lemonis okay. Adelo its three tables. Then we bumped it to 20 tables. So i bought the tortilla machine. All of a sudden, it starts booming. You know what . Lets open a tortilla business, but a bigger one. Lemonis okay. Adelo im gonna be the biggest tortilla manufacturer in the world. Lemonis so, before, you had a small restaurant, small tortilla manufacturing. Everythings small and tight. Youre making money. And then all of a sudden you wake up one day. Youre like, im gonna be. Adelo mission. Lemonis mission, the tortilla manufacturer . Adelo yes. Lemonis its like saying wonder bread. Adelo even bigger. 2006, we opened the factory. Everythings going well. In 2010, Mission Comes to the east coast. They werent here. Holy crap. They knocked us out big time. The first order that any supermarket ordered was free. Lemonis because thats marketing expense for them. You buy one, become your friend. Then you buy 1,000. Adelo right. When i went that week, they were telling me, listen, you got to give us free stuff. This guys giving us free. So im like, dude, how can i do that, man . Theyre mission. And they all started just. Lemonis going away. Adelo yeah. Lemonis what were you doing in total tortilla sales . Adelo like 400,000. Lemonis and it went from 400,000 to. Adelo last year was 220,000. Lemonis still doing 220,000 . Adelo thank god. Lemonis 220,000 in tortilla sales separate from this. Adelo yeah. Lemonis think about it. A bigger name competitor with many more resources powers into his market. And hes not even down 50 . This guy must be one hell of a salesman. Make any money in the restaurant . Adelo yeah. But it all goes to the factory thats losing money. Lemonis these are the tortillas . Adelo thats it. Lemonis corn. Adelo corn. Lemonis flour. Adelo corn. Lemonis thats pretty good. Its really good, actually. Corn tortillas can be very mealy if theyre not done right. They can be sandy and gritty. Adelo yes. Lemonis yours is way better. By the way, the foods fantastic, fantastic. Adelo thank you. Lemonis ive had a lot of tortillas in my life. And you can tell that the product just had a lot of character and authenticity to it. The texture and the flavor tastes less processed. Whos that . Adelo my munchkin. Lemonis im marcus. Nice to meet you. Is that your dad . Your only child . Adelo yeah. Lemonis do you work here now and help out . Rachel i help, but i dont work. Adelo oh, yeah, you dont work but. Lemonis she helps. Well, nice meeting you. Adelo okay, go change so you can go to school. Lemonis youre a single dad . Adelo no. Shes with her mother. Were 50 50. Lemonis when you have her, youre raising her by yourself. Adelo yeah. Lemonis is it hard . Adelo you know what . Its the most awesomest thing ever. I love it. Lemonis whats your connection to george lopez . All of a sudden, i started getting messages from george. Hes like, you got to invest in this guy. Hes a great guy. Adelo i invited him to the restaurant. Lemonis how did you get a hold of him . Adelo twitter. He was performing right around the corner. He comes in. Hes like, yeah, wheres my tacos . So im like, yeah, well make em right now. [ both laugh ] so were making them. Lemonis well, he sends me a note. He said, you got to help my guy out. So what i told george is i dont have a ton of interest, if any, in investing in a restaurant just because its not scalable. Its really the tortilla business. Adelo okay. Like, we could do more. We could do 10, 15 products of flour tortillas. We could do cheese. We could do mexican cheese. We could do mexican sodas. We could do cheese ceviche. No ones lemonis maybe you start with tortillas. Adelo of course, of course. [ laughs ] lemonis i like the fact that he has a lot of enthusiasm. But im not really sure if i would lead my Product Offering with raw fish. Thats just me. Heres what id like to do. I dont know if theres any partnership opportunity. But i want to head over to the factory. Adelo okay. Man [ shouts in spanish ] lemonis how are you . Adelo all right. Lemonis why dont we take a tour . Adelo so this it. Lemonis how big is the factory . Adelo 2,200 square feet. Lemonis so show me the process. Adelo all right. Lemonis how do you mix this . Here . How do you know how long to mix it . Adelo just by guessing. Lemonis guessing like, uh, it feels like 5 minutes . Adelo yeah. Lemonis flour and water. And so what makes this so different . Adelo right there. This is our secret. Lemonis so why is this the secret . We cant buy this machine . Adelo mexico. Lemonis only in mexico . Adelo yeah, here, theyre not so much allowed. Lemonis why arent they allowed . Adelo because they dont have safety. See that thing that lemonis people get their hands cut . Adelo but no one has. Lemonis ive seen some pretty careless operations in my time. But this one, its up there. First, he tells me that he uses guestimates to make his dough. And i cant imagine it makes for a very consistent product. Then he tells me that his machinerys not compliant. He could be shut down, sued, who knows what. And he just brushes it off like its no big deal. Adelo not so illegal. We could fix it. Lemonis and by the way, this place looks like a disaster zone. Adelo this is where i store equipment that we have. Lemonis was there a fire here . Adelo fire . No. Lemonis are you sure . Adelo yeah. Lemonis ceiling just looks like that . Adelo its the sweat of the tortilla. Lemonis i understand that hes a guy that doesnt get discouraged by things. But i didnt think that included running your business the proper way or following the law. How many can this thing make in a day . Adelo 6,000 an hour. Lemonis lets say youre gonna produce for 5 hours a day cause you got setup time and cleanup time. Adelo we do about 6 hours. Lemonis you should be able to make 36,000 pieces, right . How many go in each package . Adelo 30. Lemonis thats 1,200 bags a day. Youre gonna sell the bags for. Adelo 2. Lemonis thats 2,400 a day. Wheres your loading dock . Adelo oh, right there. Lemonis a semi can come there . Adelo well, no, not that. Lemonis we have a factory with an illegal machine. Were not really clean. You can only make a certain amount a day. And if you make more, you cant distribute them anyway. No way in hell any distributor of mine would ever allow a product to come out of here. The fact that hes doing 250,000 worth of business out of this place, look, ill give him some credit for that. But the fact that hes ignoring any standard business practice or ignoring all the codes or any compliance with any food safety, well, thats a problem. And even if all of that gets fixed, this place really isnt set up to do any volume. How you doing . Im marcus. Johnny im johnny. Lemonis nice to meet you. What do you do here . Johnny so, i do the tortillas. Lemonis whats it like working for adelo . Johnny oh, its been great. Lemonis is he a hard worker . Johnny oh, yeah. Lemonis whats the worst part of working here . Johnny the worst part . He owes me from the past days. Lemonis he does owe you . Johnny yeah, he still owes me for the back. Lemonis nice meeting you, my man. I was under the impression that the tortilla business was doing at least good enough to pay people. So what i want to do is i want to dig into the financials because where theres smoke, theres fire. So how much revenue can this place generate in a given day . 2,400. Adelo 2,400. Lemonis now, what have your margins been historically . Adelo 40 . Lemonis so take 40 of that. Adelo 960. Lemonis 960 in gross profit. What are the things that go into operating . Adelo electricity. Lemonis how much is that a day . Adelo 60. Lemonis how much is the rent . Adelo 3,000 lemonis put 100 in there. Adelo insurance is about 50. Lemonis thats workers comp insurance, making sure okay. Adelo yeah. Payroll. Lemonis so four people. What do you pay them on average an hour . Lets say 12. So thats 48 an hour times 8. Thats 384. Plus taxes, add another 40, and 100 in packaging. You have automobile expense, 900 a month. So 764 a day to run this place. The gross profit was 960 a day. So what does that leave you with . Adelo 196. Lemonis 196 in net profit a day, assuming that everything went perfect. Adelo no, no, no. Lemonis and by the way, you are not in that payroll number, just so you know. What im trying to show adelo is that this place takes more to operate than it generates in gross profit. And if thats the case, its really only a matter of time. Do you ever miss a payroll . Adelo yes. I owe 50,000. Lemonis how much did this cost to open . Adelo 400. Lemonis what was it before . Adelo it was nothing. It was just an empty spot. Lemonis so how many investors . Adelo none. Lemonis how many people lend you money . Adelo my sister. Lemonis how much . Adelo that was 150,000. Lemonis i mean, she must love tortillas. Adelo ah, she loves me. She raised me. Lemonis what do you mean she raised you . Adelo she brought me from mexico when i was 5. My dad i was 2 years old when he passed away. And my mother abandoned us. And she just brought us here, me and my brother. Everyone told me when i was a kid i was never gonna be somebody. And. Iim not gonna give up. I dont want to give up. Lemonis coming to this country, not having resources, having a notsogreat upbringing, and then working every day, bell to bell, to provide for his family and have a Brighter Future this guy, in my opinion, represents the true american dream. So what i have to figure out is what am i actually being asked to invest in . What is it . Adelo distribution. Lemonis you cant invest in distribution. Adelo you could invest in me. Lemonis okay. Adelo and i will work my butt off. Lemonis your tortilla was amazing. The food was good at the restaurant. I think you have a lot of character. And i think you have a lot of fight. And clearly, you have a work ethic. And thats hard to find. So im willing to think about it, okay . Adelo thank you, marcus. Lemonis all right, my friend. Good seeing you. Adelo all right. Lemonis hi, buddy. How are you . Adelo marcus. Lemonis good to see you. Adelo good to see you. Lemonis about a weeks gone by. And i felt that i needed to give adelo a chance to understand exactly where my head was at. And so i asked him to come in to my Office Inside the city. In order to fix this business, it would take about 500,000. The Tortilla Factory loses money. And its not compliant. Its a bad idea for you. Its a bad idea for me. Adelo marcus, i mean, ive seen you fix manufacturing. Lemonis i know, buddy. But i just its not something that i think is a good idea. We did the math. I think that you have a lot of heart. I think youre a kickass salesperson. I enjoyed my meal with you at the restaurant. I thought the food was great. But i also am a businessperson. I cant throw money into the wind. Adelo i know i could be someone, marcus. Lemonis so do i. I know you can be somebody, too, cause i already think you are somebody. And i am willing to take a chance on you. But the kind of partnership that im willing to invest in is different than ive ever done. Its not me investing in the Tortilla Factory. That factory will need to close. The place is bleeding. It owes people money. Its just its not gonna work. Adelo so whats the idea . Whats the plan . Lemonis im gonna go get the idea. Ill be right back. Adelo now . Lemonis right now. Successful people have onthey read more. On. How do they find the time . With audible. Audible has the Worlds Largest selection of audiobooks. Books like peak performance. And endurance. Books that energize and inspire for just 14. 95 a month. Less than youd pay for the hardcover. With audible, you get a creditamonth good for any audiobook. If you dont like it, exchange it any time. No questions asked. You can also roll your credits to the next month if you dont use them. Audible members use the free mobile app to listen anytime, anywhere. On the go. Or in the car. The audible app automatically keeps your place, no bookmarks required. So youll pick up right where you left off, even if you switch your phone. To your echo at home. Get more books in your life. Start a 30day trial and your first audiobook is free. Cancel anytime, and your books are yours to keep forever. Listening, is the new reading. Text listen 4 to five hundred five hundred to start listening today. Adlemonis im gonna goea . Wget the idea. N . Ill be right back. Adelo [ laughs ] george [ speaks spanish ] all right. Lemonis george sent me a lot of notes and took a lot of his time saying, take a chance on adelo. George you know what i liked . What you saw i liked his determination. I liked his heart. Foods delicious. I mean, if this guy was a boxer, hed be world champ. Theres nothing that could stop him. Lemonis so heres my idea. My offer is to put 150,000 into a new hispanic food company. Adelo, youll have 1 3 of the business, ill have 1 3 of the business, and george will have 1 3 of the business. Two amigos and a gringo. [ laughter ] adelo okay. Lemonis two amigos is creating a new entity thats a food Consumer Products company in the hispanic space. Adelo has a real knowledge about hispanic heritage food. George has the ability to market the business. But he doesnt really have the time to work on it. And i bring the business experience to the table. What i need from you, george, is i want to be able to use your likeness and your endorsement in exchange for equity and a royalty on the packaging. Youll have full approval. And were gonna ensure that the people who enjoy our food know that its the best quality coming from the best places, and it was authorized by you with all of your talent, all of your assets, all of your knowledge. With adelos expertise, i know we could develop some amazing products. But if hes gonna throw his hat in the ring on this one, hes gonna have to be 100 dedicated. And that factorys gonna have to close. Ill be glad to take care of the employees out of the companys money, 50,000 for your employees. Adelo okay. But my sister, i owe her money. George she put her money up when it mattered. Adelo yes, when it mattered. Thats the money i owe her. Lemonis okay. And you have equipment. Figure out how to sell all that equipment. Sell every chair, every plate, every table, every picture, every tortilla so you can pay your sister back. Adelo okay. Lemonis were gonna go find three or four Authentic Products that we think both the Mexican Community and nonMexican Community would love. And were gonna create a whole brand. George, what do you think three or four things would be . George you got to look at salsa, you know, chips. Im gonna have you write up, what are some other other products that you would put out there . Whats the history of them . Why do you think its gonna sell . George and you want to sell to everybody, not just the neighborhood. Lemonis im still gonna want to review it and approve it. Its not a done deal, slam dunk. Hes got his brand and his reputation. Maybe he doesnt like any of it. Its possible. You have to be prepared for that. George i feel a little unsure, to tell you the truth. Lemonis you do . George yeah. Lemonis of him. George yeah. Its a lot of work and a lot of sacrifice in the beginning. Lemonis its the details for me. You have to do your research, okay . Adelo youre taking a chance on me. And im not gonna let you down. Lemonis okay. Do we have a deal . Adelo deal. Lemonis okay. Do we have a deal . George we have a deal. Congratulations. Lemonis we got a lot of work to do. Its been about a week since we made the deal. And ive asked adelo to meet me in los angeles. There are a ton of key food manufacturers here that were going to have to meet with. So whats happening . Give me an update. But before we do that, i want to meet with adelo at my office. I want to go over the Product Research ive asked him to do. Adelo last time we spoke, i know you wanted mexican products. I went online, and actually, no ones manufacturing tamales. Lemonis do you think its odd that nobody makes tamales . Or do you think its a complicated product . Adelo if we were to freeze em, itd work out great. Lemonis have you ever had a frozen tamale . Adelo no, not really. Lemonis so how do you know . Adelo i dont know. Lemonis and so unless youve actually gone through the process of putting them in your freezer, driving em around in your car like a distributor would, thats the kind of research that im asking about. And then what told you that they would sell . Have you gone to a Grocery Store and done any research . Adelo yep. Lemonis which store did you go to . Adelo i called the mom and pops, the authentic mexicans that actually cook. Lemonis that sounds like were opening up a local business, not that were trying to create a commercial product that were gonna ask george lopez to put his name on. So what are the other products you came up with . Adelo mole, pan dulce. Lemonis as i told adelo when we made our deal, i want him to work on products that are authentic, yes. But i also want him to focus on products that have mass appeal. And that means we want to focus on the meat of the market, right in the core, not on the fringes. By the core, i mean the products that appeal to hispanics and nonhispanics like tortillas, Tortilla Chips, and salsa. We know theres big competition here, but we think we can capture a chunk of it with georges branding. What we dont want to do is focus on products on the fringes like adelo is suggesting. While there may be little competition there, theres also very little demand. Adelo marcus, i understand i got to do more research. But i didnt have a strict kind of an idea of what you were looking for. All this is new to me. Lemonis i can live with that, too. I was pretty clear about some stuff. But its my job to partner with you and give you a road map. Im gonna show you what research looks like, all right . Were gonna do it together. Adelo yeah. Lemonis all right . Adelo okay. Lemonis so, let me tell you what i wanted to accomplish here. After my last talk with adelo, i thought it was important to do some actual market research. So i brought him to gelsons in los angeles, a huge grocery chain. I want you to go through the store. And i want you to find mole, pan dulce, and tamales. Adelo oh, okay. Lemonis find your list. And what i want him to understand is what product categories are gonna give us our best chance for success, and which ones arent. Adelo do you have any pan dulce . Woman pan dulce . Adelmexicano. [ conversing in spanish ] do you have any, um, tamales, sir . No. Lemonis out of the three things that you were looking for, what did they have . Adelo nothing. But this is a gringo market. So maybe this particular market is not gonna cater to the hispanic community. Lemonis they have a lot of latino products here. I mean, look at all the salsa thats here. So is this typical of what a hispanic person would buy . Adelo yes. Lemonis okay. The fact that theres no pan dulce here doesnt necessarily make this a gringo market. What it means is that theres not a lot of people looking for it. But you know what a lot of folks are looking for . Chips. If you look at this whole section of chips, what does it say to you that 1 3 is made up of Tortilla Chips . Adelo that there is a market. Lemonis what do you think a tortilla chip with the george lopez brand would do in this section . Adelo it would sell, because people would see the name brand, which is george lopez. And it would also be authentic. Lemonis so Brand Recognition like tostitos has. Adelo right. Lemonis . And authentic. So its got, really, a double threat. Adelo yes. Lemonis so i know that you told me earlier that this is not a hispanic market. So were gonna do more research. Were gonna go to a hispanic food distributor. They distribute all kinds of things. But they specialize in hispanic foods. Adelo sounds good. Lemonis okay. So i brought my buddy, adelo, to come learn something about food distribution. Erik of course. Come on in. Lemonis were at tapia brothers, a huge food distributor on the west coast and one of four or five around the country that im hoping carry our brands. Erik knows that market really well, the hispanic food market. When i set up the meeting with erik, i asked him to go through his Sales Numbers and pick out things that he thought would penetrate the market and that georges brand would translate nicely onto. What are the three products, if you can only pick three . Erik chips, salsa, tortilla. The majority of the population in the u. S. , i think you got to lead with a milder salsa. Lemonis if there were two products that were equal, one has george attached to it, and one doesnt, as a distributor, which one are you taking . Erik i would go with the brand that people know. And Everybody Knows who george is. Lemonis Tortilla Chips, salsa, and corn and flour tortillas would be a good starting point. Adelo thank you so much, guys. Erik thank you, man. Appreciate you. Adelo take care. Erik nice to meet you. Lemonis thank you, erik. Now that were headed down the right direction, i want to spend a minute with adelo to make sure that the other loose business ends that i gave him clear direction on have also been tied up. So i had asked you to take care of the employees. Have you gotten that done . Adelo yes. Lemonis and you sold off all the equipment so that you could pay your sister back . Adelo no. I left it there. Lemonis why did you leave it there . Adelo i still had to pay rent. The agreement was with the landlord. Listen, im gonna leave the equipment. Lemonis why didnt you tell me that . Adelo that was the deal. Lemonis what deal . Adelo the eviction deal. Lemonis i dont understand. Never once did you tell me that the landlord was foreclosing on you. You never told me that. Thats an important detail. Adelo okay. But we didnt focus on that. And lemonis its not about focusing. I didnt know to ask, oh, by the way, are you getting evicted . The fact that adelo had already gotten an eviction notice before i had even been to his place is a huge problem. Talk about skipping details. Why didnt you tell me about it right then and there . Marcus, i cant sell the equipment. I already gave it up. Adelo because you never asked me about the equi listen. When you said, close the Tortilla Factory, i said okay. Lemonis but what was my next sentence . Adelo sell the equipment. Lemonis and you said, okay. Adelo yes, i had the other equipment to sell. Lemonis adelo, what equipment did you think i was referring to . If your business is in trouble, and you need my help, log onto theprofitcasting. Com. Why didnt you say to me, i cant sell the equipment. I agreed to give it to the landlord . Why didnt you tell me that . Adelo because i had the other equipment to sell. Lemonis adelo, what equipment did you think i was referring to . The stuff that was piled up in the back . Adelo yes. Lemonis no, i wanted you to sell all the equipment. Adelo that wasnt my equipment, marcus. The equipment that im gonna sell is lemonis but you didnt tell me that, adelo. And you never told me that there was a petition for foreclosure. You never told me any of that. Adelo but i didnt mean to hide it from you. Lemonis but you did hide it. Or you conveniently left it out. You just need to be transparent about everything all the time. Adelo i will, marcus. I will. Lemonis what really concerns me about adelo is there seems to be a theme here where he just brushes stuff under the carpet. His machinerys not compliant . Brushes it off. Hes getting evicted . He forgets to tell me. He cant sell the equipment because hes in the middle of getting evicted . These details matter to me. And him brushing them off, thats not gonna fly with me. Adelo i didnt want to lie to you. I didnt mean to lie to you. Maybe i didnt fully communicate. Im sorry. I got to be transparent. And moving forward, i will. Lemonis thats all i ask. Bad news, good news. Thats all i ask for, okay . Lets go to work. Hey. Adelo hey, whats going on, marcus . Lemonis how you doing, my man . Adelo called me up because he said he wanted to go over some ideas he had for the salsa. So im gonna meet him. And were gonna do a taste test. What i hope he remembers is what erik told him at tapia brothers. Yes, we want these products to be authentic, but we want to make sure they appeal to everyone all over the entire country. So tell me what everything is. Adelo now, we got cilantro, limes, onions, garlic. These tomatoes are very sweet. So theyre not gonna be so acidy. And these are chili guajillo. These are used because back home, we didnt have refrigeration. Lemonis so if i eat this, my mouth will be on fire . Adelo very, yes. Lemonis okay. Spicier than jalapeno. Adelo yes. Lemonis and so where did you get this recipe from . Adelo my sister. I used to watch her make it. Lemonis so is it her recipe . Adelo my sister got it from my grandmother. Lemonis so passed on from generation to generation. Adelo yes. And hopefully my daughters gonna keep on cooking it. Lemonis do you have a recipe . Are you making it up as you go along . Its in your head. So you really dont even know the timing on this. Youre kind of just by your eye. Adelo by your eye, yes. Lemonis uhhuh. In order for this product to be mass made, the people that make it have to know what the heck you put in it. Adelo i see where youre going. Lemonis where am i going . Adelo that we need to make a recipe that we write down. Lemonis at least hes starting to recognize the fact like, i got this. You wanted me to write it down, didnt you . [ chuckles ] little bit of garnish. Adelo garnish. Mmhmm. Good stuff. Really good. It exceeded my expectations. And im feeling like hes really starting to listen because he balanced it out. It had a real richness to it with a little bit of a kick, but not so much kick that it would alienate people. We just got to george on board. Big facility. Adelo big. Lemonis lets check it out. Adelo [ conversing in spanish ] lemonis im marcus. Ramiro ramiro. Lemonis ramiro, nice to meet you. David marcus, david. Lemonis david, nice to meet you. Adelo adelo. Lemonis are you guys brothers . Ramiro thats correct. Lemonis well, thank you for having us in your factory. I arranged for adelo and i to take a ride to la fortaleza, one of the largest tortilla and tortilla chip manufacturers in the united states. What i liked about them more than anything is that theyre familyowned and operated, and their process is truly authentic. David right here is about 4,500 pounds of corn. Lemonis raw corn. David raw corn. And we add water and a little lime. We cook it. Lemonis and so thats 100 corn. Ramiro yes. Lemonis so did you have this in your mix . Adelo no. Lemonis so your tortillas are only corn flour. And theirs has corn in it. Adelo yes. Ramiro it gives it more of a traditional flavor. Adelo i dont agree with using the corn because we eliminate one step. And the corn reduces the shelf life of the tortilla. Lemonis whats the difference between the way you make it and the way they make it in shelf life . Adelo we get about 2 months. They get about, what, 15 days . Ramiro 30 to 45 days. Adelo without preservatives . Ramiro the tortillas we make have zero preservatives. Lemonis so theres not that much difference. Adelo that im not gonna accept. Lemonis so you dont agree with these guys . Adelo no. No. I dont think that going with la fortaleza would be a great idea. Lemonis you just bailed on these guys. And honestly, that [bleep] does not fly with me. I we worked with pg eof to save energy because wenie. Wanted to help the school. They would put these signs on the door to let the teacher know you didnt cut off the light. The teachers, they would call us the energy patrol. So they would be like, here they come, turn off your lights those three young ladies were teaching the whole school about energy efficiency. We actually saved 50,000. And thats just one school, two semesters, three girls. Together, were building a better california. Lemonadelo no. No. Agree with these guys . Lemonis i dont think you want to enter a relationship doubting people. These guys are legitimate manufacturers. And this is a science for them, not a hobby. This has got a lot of research, a lot of science. Adelo okay. Right. Lemonis what about the flavor . Adelo how bout we taste it right now . Its good. Lemonis so this is the chip line. Ramiro yeah. We do fried chips. David we also make flour tortillas. Lemonis what does it typically cost to make a tortilla . Ramiro 7 cents a dozen. Lemonis thats your cost. Ramiro yeah. Lemonis and what does it cost you to make a dozen . Adelo about 50 cents. Lemonis if we were to run our own production facility, not only would there be high operating costs and high food costs, but more importantly, there would be limited capacity. The place is small. And theres only one machine. Wed never get any volume out of there. If we went with a food manufacturer like la fortaleza, it would be much better for us, because wed have no operating cost, lower food cost, and thered be unlimited capacity, and, oh, by the way, a damn good product. As far as im concerned, theres no question about the decision. Id like to figure out how to all work together. cause your factory couldnt be any more impressive. Ramiro thank you very much. Lemonis thank you so much. While we have the tortilla chip and the tortilla manufacturing locked down, we are a long ways away from being able to present to george our ideas. Our first order of business is finding somebody who can manufacture our salsa. So i took adelo to maglio. This is no mickey mouse operation. Adelo yeah, i noticed it. Lemonis i want you to start working with them right away. And theyre just as on point as la fortaleza. We now know that theres salsa, tortillas, and Tortilla Chips. Thats the lineup. Now we need to start executing. Now that we have our products, we need to come up with our packaging. Appreciate you. So adelo met with a designer to develop some mockups. Adelo i figured we could do the logos. Lemonis okay. Adelo . Like this. Then we got the chips and tortillas. Lemonis you keep having ta loco. What does that mean . Adelo its crazy. Ta loco. Thats a phrase george uses a lot in his comedy. Lemonis the mockups are eyecatching, charming, and, as far as im concerned, pretty much perfect. I like that. You think george will like it . Adelo yeah. Lemonis and i have to admit that ta loco is a heck of a lot better than two amigos. Adelo really aced this one. All right. Adelo okay, good. Lemonis ill see you in a little bit. Adelo okay. Lemonis i called george and told him that adelo and i were ready to show him the three products that he had come up with. So he asked me to meet him in his Old Neighborhood where he grew up at his favorite restaurant. Give him an update on whats happened. Adelo george, this is what we have. We went to a Grocery Store, a gringo Grocery Store. George and those stores got a mexican aisle. And i would just stand there in the mexican aisle. And my friends would be like, where are you . And id go. I cant leave. The mexican aisle. So, gelsons covers so many foods. Lemonis its not just a gringo store. George its not no. Adelo we bumped into three main mexican things, which was tortillas, chips, and salsa. Lemonis so we want to start with the basic ones that we know clear the market. Adelo can i just Say Something . Lemonis yeah. Adelo i dont think that going with la fortaleza would be a great idea. Lemonis whys that . Adelo because if we want to go worldwide, we should definitely reach out to mission and let them be our private label. Lemonis wait a minute. I thought adelo was, like, mr. Authentic. Now he wants to side with the huge competitor that actually knocked him out of the market . Adelo distribution is huge with mission. Lemonis la fortaleza, did you feel like they were authentic . Adelo yes. Lemonis like, their product, did that feel authentic to you . Adelo it did. Lemonis so then why in the hell do you want to leave authentic . I have a meeting set up with the buyers from sams club. Do you feel like youre prepared to make a pitch . Adelo i dont think that going with la fortaleza would be a great idea. Lemonis did you feel like they were authentic . Adelo yes. Lemonis so then why in the hell do you want to leave authentic . Immediately, you dismissed two guys that opened up their doors to us, familyowned and operated, because you wanted to jump to mission, which is the people that you told me were too big and too corporate. Adelo the reason why is because distribution is huge with mission on lemonis right. But when they private label for you, youre not guaranteed distribution. They dont sell it for you. Adelo that i did not know. Okay. Lemonis which is why you have to do what . Adelo research. Lemonis okay. Look, ive spent a lot of time with adelo. And i know hes coming from a good place. Hes excited. He wasnt really thinking through the consequences. But george hasnt really spent that much time with him. So hes a little thrown off by it. And now that were going into this taste test where george is gonna make a decision, you want to talk about pressure, im feeling it. George im not a favorite green guy. But lets see. Lemonis George Lopez Verde salsa. George thats delicious. Lemonis its good . George its delicious. Right there. You know what . This is a rare instance that i might like the green better than the red. Lemonis good. You feeling like we hit it . George oh, good, absolutely. Thats great. Adelo wow, yeah. Lemonis the fact that george approved not only one of the products but all of the products, thats the momentum that i was looking for. Adelo all right. So, george, i came up with a couple of designs. Can i show them to you . George all right. Adelo we came up with the name. George ta loco. Adelo ta loco. George i love it. I love the name. Adelo well, i stole this idea from your show. George yeah, ta loco, thats crazy salsa. Lemonis so what do you think . You think hes made some progress . George i think so. Yeah. I got to tell you. Were making good progress. Were making progress. I tell you, man, im lemonis good job, brother. George im pleasantly surprised. Im happy. Like my grandmother would say, im as proud as i can be at this particular moment. Now show me some more. [ laughter ] lemonis now that george really likes the products, we have one more challenge. Thats convincing big retailers to carry it. So what do you think . Adelo awesome. This is sams club. Coming in here, this is, like, what ive been working for, to be in companies this big with this ah, its awesome, marcus. This is the real deal. Lemonis today, were going to sams club. And candidly, there doesnt need to be a big explanation of who they are. Theyre big. And they could be a gamechanger for this company. I actually have a meeting set up with the buyers from sams club. And youre gonna get a chance to actually pitch them. I know that you have the tenacity to sell because you sold me. Adelo right. Lemonis do you feel like youre prepared to make a pitch . Adelo im 100 sure. Lemonis i cant get us across the goal line. You have to do that. And id be lying to you if i told you i wasnt nervous. Adelo im ready. Ive been waiting for this sales pitch for a very long time. And i think ive got what it takes, marcus. Lemonis all right. Lets head to the meeting. Going forward, adelo has to be the one to head up sales because im not gonna be able to be at every sales presentation. So this meeting has a lot riding on it for adelos future just as much as the companys. Heather hi. Lemonis how are you . Heather im good. How are you . Im heather. Nice to meet you. Lemonis nice to meet you. This is george lopez. Heather george, nice to meet you. George heather, im already eating the stuff. Heather hi, adelo. Heather. Adelo thank you so much for this opportunity. My names Adelo Ramirez. I have this passion to cook. I started a Restaurant Business 16 years ago. And 12 years ago, i opened a tortilla manufacturing. I wasnt really running a professional tortilla manufacturing. And thats when i met george lopez. George i wasnt responsible for it not being professionally run. Just so you know. [ laughter ] dont drag me down. Yeah, it wasnt professionally run. Then i met george. And then we went all the way down, man. Adelo but i got this great opportunity now to start all over but the right way. I believe in people, process, product. So the people, guys im right here, 24 7. Our process our manufacturers have all the certifications that you require and will make any size that you desire. If you tell me that we dont need 48 ounces, we need 64, well do that for you. Our product, we would like to offer you a corn tortilla, a flour tortilla, and chips in combination with our salsas, green and red. Louie um, i would challenge you to look at brand awareness. And you got some great partners that are gonna help you with that. But today, its not there. Its not known. Heather i would add to that authenticity and the freshness of the product is important. Those are the two things that our members really look for when theyre purchasing an item at sams club. How do you convey that freshness and authenticity . What would drive a member to pick up this versus another brand that they might be more familiar with . Lemonis for exclusives, extras, and business advice, visit theprofit. Cnbc. Com. Successful people have onthey read more. On. How do they find the time . With audible. Audible has the Worlds Largest selection of audiobooks. Books like peak performance. And endurance. Books that energize and inspire for just 14. 95 a month. Less than youd pay for the hardcover. With audible, you get a creditamonth good for any audiobook. If you dont like it, exchange it any time. No questions asked. You can also roll your credits to the next month if you dont use them. Audible members use the free mobile app to listen anytime, anywhere. On the go. Or in the car. The audible app automatically keeps your place, no bookmarks required. So youll pick up right where you left off, even if you switch your phone. To your echo at home. Get more books in your life. Start a 30day trial and your first audiobook is free. Cancel anytime, and your books are yours to keep forever. Listening, is the new reading. Text listen 4 to five hundred five hundred to start listening today. Heather authenticity and the freshness of the product is important. Those are the two things that our members really look for when theyre purchasing an item at sams club. What would drive a member to pick up this versus another brand that they might be more familiar with . Adelo now i want to point out all that little black stuff is the actual corn that all the other brands wont have, because fortaleza cut the corn raw. They do the milling, which makes our tortilla extra authentic. George lopez, his comedy comes from that mexican heritage. And everyone knows ta loco. George i used it like, no way, ta loco. My daughter would say, i want 4,000 to go skiing. 4,000 to go skiing . Go down that hill right there. Ta loco, 4,000. So. [ laughter ] lemonis have you had a chance to taste the chips . George has had a bunch. George i love em. Heather theyre both great and have very different flavors, which is great cause they can be incremental purchases. One person likes one, theyre more apt to pick up the other. Louie im actually impressed with the quality of the salsa. It tastes authentic. Adelo so we got an order . Heather yeah. And i think the la market is probably the best place to start. Adelo great. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Lemonis not only was adelo a great listener, not only did he create a connection with the buyer, he knew exactly the right things to say. He did a great job. And i think that, if you can nail sams club, the skys the limit. Heather thank you for coming to see us today. Lemonis thank you very much. Were looking forward to it. Were excited. Louie adelo. Lemonis george and i will be at the first store launch. When i first met adelo, he lacked the polish and the structure and the discipline it takes to run a good business. And now he understands that the details matter. Also, he doesnt mind selling products to gringos now, a lot of gringos. Adelo since i was a kid, ive been a salesperson. But no one saw that but you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much to both of you. Lemonis you should take a chance on people when you least expect it. Theyll surprise you just like he did me. Good job, buddy. Good job. Cate welcome toto the blues jean bar. Lemonis . A chain of bluejean boutiques built around one big gimmick. Lady our slogan is, you belly up to the bar, and well cover your ass. Lemonis the owner is clinging to a questionable sales strategy. Youve taken up a lot of space with a dead shoe bar that could have been a cashmere corner. And her mothers legacy is on the line. Lady to lose her money would be doing her a disservice. Lemonis theres no supervision at the top, and roles are confused. Tasha if i had more direction, i could have done better. Lemonis i need to sort out the staffing problems, get rid of stagnant merchandise, and give this retail chain a brandnew identity. Lady oh, my god. Lemonis or the blues jean bar will be a wash out. Lady im consumed by fixing this problem