Arab Americans

Shibley Azar

In 1907, a young immigrant named Shibley Azar opened a small nut-candy store near the Rio Grande River in El Paso, Texas.  In time, Shibley built a pecan shelling and packaging business into one of the premier nut companies in the world. He had a simple philosophy: pack a good product and back it with uncompromising service. That philosophy still applies to every product we make, from nut products, to snacks and candy.

Today, Azar Foodservice continues as one of the largest foodservice distributors in the United States. The company distributes food to over 900 customers, including restaurants, healthcare facilities, hotels, schools and colleges. Azar Foodservice markets and distributes more than 600 national, private label and signature brand items.

Azar Foodservice’s Manufacturing Plants

Azar’s nut processing plant, Azar Nut Company, is located in El Paso, Texas. Azar Nut Company processes a broad line of packaged nuts such as pecans, walnuts and almonds and bulk foodservice items such as sunflower seeds, mints, and trail mixes. Azar also markets private label and Azar branded nuts to the retail market.

Sunrise Confections is a world class manufacturer of sugar-based confections. The Sunrise plant, located in Juarez, Mexico commenced operations in March 2001. Due to its location in Mexico, Sunrise enjoys significant labor and raw material cost advantages compared to U.S. based sugar candy manufacturers.

Sunrise produces a broad line of hard candies such as starlight mints and butterscotch discs and soft candies such as orange slices, spice drops, jelly beans and gummi candies. Sunrise also manufactures candy products for U.S. based candy companies under the Sunrise contract manufacturing program. Sunrise also does contract packaging for national and international candy and food product companies. Sunrise product is sold through major grocery, drug, mass merchant, foodservice and convenience channels under private label and Sunrise brand.