Make Herr's Yours

     Last week I returned to the Herr's potato chip factory in Nottingham, PA for a visit.  It is an impressive operation that had a very inauspicious beginning.  The year was 1946 and young James Herr purchased the Verna's Potato Chips company with $1,750 of borrowed money.  That money gave Jim the rights to the business along with 2 iron kettles, a potato slicer and peeler and a '38 Dodge panel truck.  He began cooking and selling potato chips from a vacated tobacco shed on the family farm in Lancaster.  It took him 3 years to pay off the loan and in 1949 he was able to rent a larger baking facility in West Willow.  But in 1951 a fire destroyed the plant.  Wondering  if he should just give up or try again, Jim and his wife, Mim, decided to rebuild on a larger 37 acre property they had purchased.  It was the correct decision.

     From 3 sales routes to Lancaster, West Chester and Coatesville, the business continued to grow to over 500 sales routes to 11 states from 23 warehouse locations and distribution to several foreign countries.

     And as the years passed the Herr family added new products beginning in 1958 when they first introduced barbeque seasoned chips.  The Herr's name is currently on a variety of different snack items including popcorn, cheese curls, pretzels, corn and tortilla chips, and onion rings.

     Being ecologically mindful they also maintain a 1,000 acre farm adjacent to the manufacturing plant where waste water is used to grow crops and potato peelings and unusable food products are mixed with feed and fed to the herd of Angus steer on the farm.

     Herr's continues to experiment with new products and I brought some home to try.  Gee, it looks like families could have a complete picnic right out of the bag without ever having to light up the grill!