New Mexico Meat Plant Owner Rebuilds as Veggie Burger Factory

When Andy Barrientes arrived for his shift on Valentine's Day 2005, he found his coworkers holding hands across the street, watching their workplace burn to the ground. The RMS Foods factory in Hobbs, New Mexico had just caught fire, and within an hour, the roof had collapsed and nearly all the equipment was destroyed.

Sam Cobb stood in that park watching 46 years of his family's meat processing business turn to ash. His father had founded the company, and Cobb had spent years working under him before taking over. But instead of walking away, he made a promise.

The next day, Cobb announced he would keep paying all 100 employees for as long as it took to rebuild. He hadn't even met with the insurance company yet. Within a week, he had negotiated a deal where every worker would receive unemployment benefits, and a third would be hired to help reconstruct the factory.

"We were doing 17 hours a day," said Barrientes, who worked on the rebuild and still works at RMS Foods today. "We got it done quick." Eight months later, the factory was operational again.

But this wasn't just any factory anymore. RMS Foods had recently pivoted from processing beef and pork to manufacturing Boca Burgers, the soy-based veggie patties. In Hobbs, a city of 40,000 in the heart of oil and cattle country, this was practically unheard of.

"Here in oil patch/cattle country, it is probably difficult to find people who will give any type of endorsement to any burger labeled vegetarian," said Robert Hamilton, a local librarian. Barbeque joints and steakhouses dominate the area, and most jobs involve oil extraction or ranching.

Yet there sits RMS Foods, churning out plant-based burgers in a nondescript building. "You would be surprised how many people don't know that this is here," said Arnold Langley, a production manager who moved from Washington state specifically to work for Cobb in 2006.

The Ripple Effect

Cobb's commitment to his employees created something rare in modern manufacturing: genuine loyalty. "He's never said no to us," Barrientes said. "He's always taken care of every one of his employees, and that's why we're all so dedicated to him."

The trust paid off. Workers didn't just wait for the factory to be rebuilt; they became the builders themselves. They ran wires, poured concrete, and put up walls because their boss had shown them they mattered more than the bottom line.

Today, RMS Foods continues producing veggie burgers in the middle of cattle country, proving that taking care of people can transform an entire business model and community expectation about what's possible.