Happle's Gourmet Foods marks plant opening in Homestead

HOMESTEAD -- An organic bakery that supplies pies to customers domestically and as far away as Middle East on Thursday marked its grand opening in the Amana Colonies.

Happle's Gourmet Foods in Homestead is the only certified organic pie company in the United States and Canada, according to the Organic Trade Association. The company employs five at its 8,600-square-foot plant, but expects employment to grow to 15 in the near future, according to Bill Happel, president and a partner in the business with his daughter, Tamra Happel Garman.

"We bought four and half acres from Amana, which will allow us to expand in the future," Happel said. "We farmed the business out to bakeries in Wisconsin and Upper South Amana, but it got to the point where we either had to be up in Wisconsin or down here.We grew enough to where we could afford to build our own plant."

The new facility will let Happle's Gourmet Foods process and freeze more organic produce to use in its products. Happel said the pies are baked and then placed in a nitrogen tunnel that freezes them at 160 degrees below zero.

"We had Iowa State University test the shelf life of our products," he said. "We needed to verify that information for us to ship our products overseas.

"We've picked up some large accounts in the southeast United States within the last couple of months and we have distribution in Chicago and other metropolitan areas."

Al Beach, director of the Kirkwood Small Business Development Center in Cedar Rapids, said the bakery's location in Iowa County is ideal.

"You are close to the intersection of Interstates 80 and 380, which provides good access to anywhere else in the country, and the prevailing wage in Iowa County is very attractive," Beach said. "The Iowa Interstate Railroad and the CRANDIC also provide service to the county."

John Peterson, president of Amana Society Inc., said Happle's Gourmet Foods is the kind of business that the Amana Colonies is working to attract.

"We're looking for businesses involved with food processing and possibly light assembly," Peterson said. "We've set aside between 15 to 18 acres of land for those types of enterprises and we have some money in our economic development budget to attract them.

"We feel that with the economy improving, it's time to look at bringing those kinds of businesses to the Amana Colonies."

Besides Happel and his daughter, partners in Happle's Gourmet Foods include Midamar in Cedar Rapids and Ag Ventures Alliance of Mason City.

Happle's Gourmet Foods received $100,000 from the Grow Iowa Values Fund to help with the construction costs of the Homestead plant.