Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/60127
Eye-to-eye with CONSUMERS Retail marketing shapes orchards and practices at Hollabaugh Bros. by Richard Lehnert W hat better way for a fruit grower to experi- ence the true feel of consumer demand than by selling fruit directly to them? At Hollabaugh Bros. in Biglerville, Pennsylvania, the family has been doing that since 1955, when the first generation of Hollabaughs, twins Donald and Harold, bought the land, developed the orchards, and decided to start a retail farm market in a small shed. That market expanded into a larger building, followed by seven additions, and next year comes a bitter- sweet moment. The colorful old barn will be torn down and replaced with a new, larger, more coherent facility. Good Fruit Grower visited this Adams County farm and market last fall, focusing on the question: How does this direct customer contact influence your fruit operation? We posed the question to two members of the third generation, Bruce Hollabaugh and his sister Ellie Hol- labaugh Vranich, who entered the business during the last decade. Bruce manages the farm's fruit and vegetable production with their father, Brad. Ellie manages the market with their mother, Kay. Other Hollabaughs are involved, six families of them in all, making a living off 400 acres of fruit and a few acres of vegetables. Both Ellie and Bruce have degrees from Pennsylvania State University—Bruce majored in horticulture with a minor in Spanish, while Ellie majored in agribusiness management and Spanish. Both prepared themselves to return home and manage key parts of the operation. The market is open from April, starting with aspara- gus, through December, ending with Christmas gift fruit boxes, and filled between with an enormous diversity of fruits, vegetables, and value-added items like gifts and preserves. Bruce is looking to modernize the orchards, and Ellie is working to improve marketing, especially through the Internet and social media. She recently started a loyalty card program. Reaction to varieties One aspect of direct consumer sales is easy to see in a Hollabaugh marketing tool called "the bin porch." On this October day, there were 17 bins of apples and pears—all different varieties—lined up on the porch on the store's north side. Customers fill sacks of varying sizes with any apples or pears they want. These serve as votes. And the more they buy, the lower the price per pound. A sign on the porch names the varieties. Surprisingly, the best-selling apple that day was not Honeycrisp. It was Nittany, a variety bred and introduced by Penn State Uni- versity in 1979 as a processing apple. A cross of Golden Delicious and York Imperial, it is a large, juicy, sweet, crisp apple, very Honeycrisp-like, good eaten fresh, and Above: Nittany is a best seller. Right: The sister-brother team, Ellie and Bruce, works closely together to coordinate between orchard and market. One rule is, no empty shelves. 16 APRIL 1, 2012 GOOD FRUIT GROWER considered exceptional for cooking. The Hollabaughs have found it a must-have apple, but it's a local phenom- enon virtually unknown elsewhere. "We actually send out e-mail blasts telling customers when the Nittany apples are ready, they are so popular," Bruce said. Ellie, working in the market, keeps her brother in the orchard informed about what's selling and what she needs. Bins are not allowed to become empty. It is Bruce's responsibility to make sure fruit arrives so those bins and all the other displays stay filled. The two work together, with Ellie forming a weekly marketing plan based on Bruce's knowledge of what will be ripe that week. It's a huge task. The orchards produce 35 varieties of plums and pluots alone, 35 varieties of apples (plus mul- tiple strains), 30 varieties of peaches, and 15 acres of European and Asian pears. "Plums are a minor crop for us," Bruce said, "but absolutely essential to our marketing. And we're one of the few growers left in the county that still grow pears." These crops, and other specialties like Nittany apples, shape the dynamic of the market, he said. Bruce is also under the command of his uncle Neil and cousin Wayne, who operate the wholesale division. Wholesale has two parts, the bigger one being sales to small vendors who buy Hollabaugh fruit for resale at farm and farmers' markets elsewhere. "Our wholesale enter- prise is currently a bigger portion of our business than the retail market," Ellie said. Bruce finds these vendors are relentless, on the phone calling once or twice a week to find out what's new, what's coming this week. Many orchards are on steep hills. Very little land on their farm is not either in production or being prepared for planting.