Industry Snack foods Website www.herrs.com Founder Jim Herr Type of business Private | Area served Eastern United States Headquarters Nottingham Founded 1946 | |
Profiles | ||
Herr's is a Nottingham, Pennsylvania-based brand of potato chips and other snack foods. While their products are sold throughout the Eastern United States and Canada, their stronghold is the Mid-Atlantic region. Herr's products are sold in twenty-eight states.
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History
In 1946, James S. Herr, then 21 years old, purchased a small potato chip company in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Initial sales averaged approximately thirty dollars a week.
In 1958, the company introduced flavored potato chips, and in 1974, switched to foil packaging from the traditional glassine bags. The 1970s and 1980s saw a growth in the snack food industry which prompted an expansion in the variety of products being manufactured, including corn chips, tortilla chips, and pretzels. The 1980s also saw the addition of the Herr Angus Farm, a cattle farm which made use of potato waste products. James S. Herr died on April 5, 2012, at the age of 87.
Products
Herr's produces a wide variety of snack foods, including potato chips, pretzels, tortilla chips, cheese curls, popcorn, and onion rings. They produce, as of July 2016, 37 different potato chip varieties, with an emphasis on strong and spicy flavors. Among their offerings are ragin ranch, buffalo blue cheese, Old Bay, horseradish, baby back ribs, Kansas City steak, hot sauce, jalapeño, in addition to more traditional varieties such as barbecue, kettle cooked, sour cream & onion, cheddar & sour cream, salt & pepper, Ketchup, and salt & vinegar.
In January 2016, Herr's released a picture on social media previewing a new Crab Fries flavored potato chips in partner with Chickie's & Pete's, a sports bar also headquartered in the Philadelphia region. Herr's planned to release the chips to stores a couple of months after the announcement, however the chips were instead released one month later in February due to popular demand.
Herr's potato chips are sold in distinctive foil packaging.
In popular culture
A subplot of an episode of The Office (U.S. TV series) features Jim Halpert and Karen Filippelli spending the workday searching for a package of Herr's salt and vinegar chips.
Visitors' center
The Herr's Visitors' Center was constructed in 1989 and is adjacent to the plant in Nottingham, Pennsylvania. Tour guides lead visitors through both the visitors' center and the actual plant. The tours last approximately one hour.