![]() Started in 1934 as a catalogue company, Harry & David now has stores around the U.S. “Well, besides the free gift box filled with cookies at the end…”Ībout the Harry & David: A long-time Medford and Rogue River Valley business that not only grows pears and peaches, but is one of the largest United States mail order companies. “I would say the most popular part of the tour is the baking and candy kitchen,” Armstrong said. Walking over the catwalks and walkways of the tour, you get a sense of just how much business the company does – with forklifts and production lines always moving and busy. Today it is one of the country’s oldest mail-order companies. Royal Riviera Pears grown in the Rogue River Valley, soon became chocolate, fruitcakes and even Moose Munch. However, they have not abandoned their agricultural roots, with the orchard division of the company, called Bear Creek Orchards, still maintaining over 2,500 acres of pears and peaches. It was the Great Depression that lead to the two brothers to sell their pears by mail, and the business model was born. The Rosenberg family has been growing and selling pears in some sort or another since 1910, and Harry & David was created during a time much like the recession of 2008-2010. In fact the employees you do meet still have that family-business attitude, even though the company was sold in 2005 and is now owned by investors. “Once people start here, they rarely leave.” “People who work here feel like family,” Armstrong said. Harry & David is the largest employer in the Rogue River Valley, and many of their employees stay with the company for decades.Īs the tour began, we met Margaret, who has been with the company for 30 years and has spent many of those years tying bows for the company’s many gift baskets. In 2009 they used six million pounds of chocolate, they make batches of 100 pounds of popcorn at a time, and cook 800 pounds per hour, they recycle 92 percent of their waste, California has the most Harry & David stores and Christmas is their largest holiday, with Mother’s Day coming in second. The tour, which takes about 60 minutes, is filled with facts and figures about the company. Visitors are loaded into small buses and then taken to the several building campus, where you can see all phases of the production. The Medford store is the company’s flagship store and it is filled with fresh pears and many aisles of Harry & David products. Tours start at their Harry & David Country Village, a few blocks away from the main campus – so make sure to visit the store if you want a tour as they don’t start at the factory along Highway 99. The company, which has been in business since 1934, offers tours of its 55-acre campus three times a day for a small fee, which you can then use as a coupon for purchasing some of their delicious products. One of the first things that Kay Armstrong, tour director tells groups of people touring the Harry & David plant in Medford is that inside the building, calories don’t count.Īll it takes is some sniff of the incredible confections to become a believer. The first thing you notice when you walk into the candy and confection area of the Harry & David tour is the smell: The sweet aroma of chocolate. ![]()
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