Family business owners embark on new endeavor
March 5 th, 2009
By Sean Gaffney

PHARR - Laura Villarreal warmly greeted a lone shopper earlier this week, beaming a confidence generally embodied by a far more experienced saleswoman.

After 21 years maintaining a home, rearing five children and ushering her husband off to work every morning, the 45-year-old Villarreal returned to the work force this past January to manage the retail side of the Pharr-based Batteries Plus.

She co-owns the franchise with her husband Antonio.

Tuesday, she said, after two decades in the home, she was nervous and excited after she decided to join her husband in his latest endeavor.

"It is a lot of responsibility," she said recently. "I have to learn a lot of things still."
A former real estate investor who made his money financing planned communities during the boom years in the Rio Grande Valley, 46-year-old Antonio Villarreal opened a retail store because there was nothing else he could do to generate a decent income.
There are no high-paying jobs at the moment. Real estate is dead. He even lost thousands when Obra Homes pulled out of the Valley in 2007 and left him holding onto an incomplete residential development.

"If I lose that I will lose 21 years of creating my wealth and being a good businessman," he explained about opening the new store at 1201 S. Jackson Road. "Real estate is not going anywhere. I need to feed my kids."

His situation is not dire yet, but his money is tied up in assets that in this economic crisis are not worth much. Banks would not finance the new store, despite collateral from his property holdings that was worth far more than the loan.

He dipped into the family's savings, with his wife's blessing, to open the store which offers a plethora of batteries for everything form iPods to digital scanners.

"It helps us be together more as a couple," Antonio Villarreal said. "She can run the retail. I can run the commercial."

Laura Villarreal agreed. She is spending more time with her husband and appears generally excited to take on the new responsibilities - she still returns home in the afternoon to watch the kids after school.

And while the couple may not always agree on business matters, Antonio Villarreal explained that they generally resolve things easily.

"The final say?" he pondered. "Yes honey.

-- Sean Gaffney covers business, the economy and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4434.