You can pick up a package of Silva Sausage, crafted and packaged here in Gilroy, on nearly every continent. Across the country, major retailers – including Costco, Walmart, Krogers, Whole Foods and others – stock their traditional Portuguese and Italian linguiça, Spanish and Mexican chorizo, hot dogs, hot links and other seasoned sausages.
Since relocating from San Jose to a sprawling 52,000-square-foot facility in the Garlic Capital three years ago, where everything is produced, the Martins family has seen their multi-million dollar business grow by 10 percent a year. On an average day, a total workforce of roughly 50 employees churns out approximately 200,000 individual links.
Manuel Martins, a Portuguese immigrant, moved his family to the United States in 1964 with a dream of starting his own food business. He quickly found work at a small Santa Clara-based sausage company and founded Silva Sausage in San Jose three years later. The name Silva Sausage was an easy choice for Manuel and his business partner until 1984, Tony Silva Gomes, and it also happens to be the maiden name of Manuel’s wife.
Manuel’s eldest son Fernando joined the family business in 1984. After Manuel passed away in 1993, Fernando took the helm as president, and his younger brother Rick came aboard as vice president.
“It’s the same story you’ll find throughout the United States: a small family business that’s just grown,” Rick said. “We try to put out the best product we possibly can. What my dad taught us was quality ingredients equal a quality product.”
In November 2010, Rick and Fernando moved the business to Gilroy after then-Mayor Al Pinheiro courted the business once he learned they were inching toward the business-friendly environment of the Garlic Capital.
“We built this facility to be able to house our business and all future growth for the next 10-plus years,” Fernando said. “We built it with that in mind – not to just outgrow it in a couple of years. We plan on sticking around.”
In February, the Silva Sausage facility was certified organic. Fernando explained they always use whole muscle meats – always fresh and never frozen – and all-natural ingredients at every stage of the sausage-making process.
“When you make traditional sausages like we do, you can’t hide any imperfections in the meat,” he said.
There’s a lot of work that goes into each Silva Sausage. Refrigerated meat from pork, chicken and beef is trucked into the Gilroy facility and placed on an inspection table. From there, each batch is inspected for wholesomeness and passes through a meat grinder.
The future sausage then goes through a commercial-grade food processor including hot dogs, hot links and Polish sausage, or – in the case of Portuguese or Italian sausages – straight to a mixer for seasoning. Each sausage is individually linked by hand, hung on a stainless steel rack and transferred to the smokehouses onsite.
“Then they’ll go through different cycles depending on the product,” Fernando explained. “We dry cook, steam cook, smoke and have a lot of other different processes. They usually stay in the ovens for about three hours.”
On busier days, Silva Sausage staffers are able to produce up to 45,000 pounds of sausage, according to Fernando.
Silva Sausage offers all of its employees full benefits and a 401K retirement package.
“They don’t pay out of pocket for any benefit, so we have little turnover,” Fernando said. “If you’re not paying what should be the value for that type of employee, they’ll leave. Any business will do that.”
There are four other food producers headquartered in Gilroy: Christopher Ranch, Olam International, Monterey Gourmet Foods and Wheat Valley Bakery. At full capacity, together they employ nearly 1,450 people.
“The branding that’s occurred with branding Gilroy as the Garlic Capital of the world has had a major impact across all types of companies, from tourism to food processing,” said President Tammy Brownlow of the Gilroy Economic Development Corporation.
The payrolls generated through local employment trickles down through local goods and services that ultimately support the City through sales tax revenues, and as these businesses continue to grow, “the economic impacts are far-reaching,” she added.
For the Martins brothers, every day at work is another opportunity to carry the legacy passed onto them by their father with the chance of one day bestowing their own children with the same opportunity.
“The food business is great,” Fernando said. “What’s not fun about trying stuff and eating it?”
Silva products are available locally in every Gilroy supermarket and at the annual Garlic Festival.
Christopher Ranch ~ 650 employees
Olam International ~ 450 employees
Monterey Gourmet Foods ~270 employees
Silva Sausage ~ 50 employees
Wheat Valley Bakery ~ 30 employees
