The History of Harlan Foods: From a humble retail bagel company to a leading North American food conglomerate
Harlan Foods began over 30 years ago in Indianapolis, Indiana. Having recently graduated from Indiana University, brothers Hugh and Doug Harlan identified bagels as a growing opportunity. There were a handful of small bagel shops in town and all of them were crowded each day, several selling out everything they had made before noon.
So the brothers decided they would begin to make and sell their own product, Bigger Better Bagels. Very quickly it was obvious that these bagels were a hit and the business transitioned into focusing only on food manufacturing. Bigger Better Bagels gained attention as being some of the tastiest bagels on the market. Soon, large, nationally known retail brands began to inquire if the company would manufacture bagels for them.
The brothers quickly realized they were in high growth mode when they ran out of freezer room and had to rent freezer trucks to house the exploding production.
The company evolved into Harlan Bakeries and quickly grew into a family affair with Hugh and Doug's father and mother joining in to help lead and grow the company.
Interested in seeing some of the many delicious food products Harlan makes? Click on this video to check them out!
We have continued to grow and expand. In 2022, Harlan acquired Ameriqual Foods. Ameriqual is a leader in A-Pack and MRE manufacturing. You will find our A-Pack meals wherever you find organizations supporting disaster relief and our MRE's nourish our troops in conflict zones around the world.
Harlan now feeds nearly 2 in 10 Americans weekly providing food products that range from baked goods to deserts to functional, organic and medical food products to snacks and savory meal items to even seafood. For our four legged friends, Harlan Foods also creates and manufactures a number of organic pet food and pet treat products.
Today, Harlan's facilities span both the U.S. and Canada and is still family run.
Harlan Foods began over 30 years ago in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Today, Harlan is still a privately held, family run company focused on manufacturing an increasingly diverse line of food products.
Harlan has production facilities across North America which manufacture breakfast breads, bagels, breadsticks, english muffins, muffins, pies, snacks, shelf-stable and clean label foods, energy and nutrition bars, granola, wellness beverages and even MRE's (meals ready to eat). Harlan also owns a number of commercial apple orchards which grow the delicious apples that go into the blue ribbon winning pies the company manufactures.
The Harlan family of companies also manufactures a line of pet foods and well as sustainably harvests and processes certain seafoods.
Well Being, Satisfaction, Personal & Professional Growth of Our Team members
Job Satisfaction at Harlan
Because of all the opportunity for growth at Harlan, over 20% of our Food Professionals have been part of our team a decade or more. With a wide variety of departments and job areas, you are limited only by your curiosity and desire to try new things!
Harlan also believes in investing in the well-being, satisfaction, personal and professional growth of our team members. We provide the only comprehensive Food Manufacturing Certifications in the industry. It is an industry standard recognizing you as the very best, as well as a badge of pride for our Food Professionals.
If you are looking for a stable, high growth company that values its team members as well as invests in them, where personal and professional growth options are plentiful and where you can have the opportunity to be part of the team which proudly feeds 1 in 10 Americans, then Harlan is place you can call home.
