Pam Trimmer, Research Officer for Hills District Historical Society, and also Editor of the Hills Heritage News, a position that I also held more than a few decades ago, provided me with the following.
“The first Harris Farm Market was opened in 1971 in Villawood, Western Sydney, by David and Cathy Harris. It has since grown to 26 stores open in NSW. Harris Farm Markets has had its fair share of ups and downs throughout its 50 years. Like many entrepreneurs, David and Cathy, having seen their first shop’s success, were keen to expand their business.
However, due to their limited business experience at the time, they ended up expanding too quickly and going broke. To save the company, the family had to bring in private equity investors, who, in another turn of bad luck for the family, also became broke. So, they turned to the banks, but with high interest rates through borrowing from the banks, could have never succeeded. In the end, they had to sell stores and scale back to three stores. ”(The Farmer Magazine Sept Oct 2023)
To supply their stores, they had land and accommodation next to the Round Corner Dural shopping centre on Stonelea Court, which was originally a Poultry venture by David’s father. David’s father installed their swimming pool as a means to have a constant supply of water, especially in the summer when the local water tanks proved unreliable. This site, originally an early grant of land to a convict, John Stone, was the beginnings of Harris Farm Market.
John Stone was an elusive character who, arriving in the colony on the “Glatton” in 1803, appears to have joined his ancestors while living in John Hillas’ Jnr’s hut near Taralga sometime after the 1828 Census. He doesn’t appear to have developed his grant, but a stone cottage was built on the site and obtained the name “Stonelea”. It was incorporated into a later modern extension as part of the family home.
David Harris was quoted in the Farmer Magazine – “we were always very connected to the farming community. Right through the 70s we were living in Dural, and we market gardened the whole 25 acres—we had share farmers living on the farm with us so we really understood how it works” (Harris Farm Markets from The Farmer Magazine ..)
“When David Harris was 65-yearsold, in 2013, the question of who would take over as CEO became an important question for the company; at the time, three out of David and Cathy’s five sons were working for Harris Farm Markets. Luke had been there the longest and joining the business back in 1995. Angus joined the family business in 2003 as the chief information officer.
Tristan was the last to join the company, starting as a grocery buyer in 2006. When David called all of them into a meeting to discuss the company’s future, David shocked them by announcing that they would become co-CEOs, a move predicted to be the beginning of the end. The brothers maintain that all three together have made the company stronger.” The Farmer Magazine.
Family has always been at the heart of Harris Farm Markets, right from its inception 52 years ago when David approached his entrepreneurial father for career advice after he, and his then fiancée Cathy, graduated with a Commerce degree from university.
“He gave me some criteria to think about, and I identified two target industries: we’d either be fruit shop owners, or funeral directors,” David says. “Neither of them had big players in them at the time, so the shop was a logical industry to go into.”
“My father, who was Italian, was horrified!” Cathy interjects. “He was like, “I sent my daughter to the best schools, and she’s just graduated university – hello?!” Life in retirement is on their 500-hectare farm in the Megalong Valley, although David still keeps an eye on buying while Cathy watches marketing.
Here they still grow their vegetables; practice regenerative cattle farming with their 500 head herd; breed cattle; and have facilities for breaking and training their 120+ Icelandic horses (one of the oldest and purest horse breeds in the world); and wish to promote responsible more sustainable upmarket tourism in the valley while protecting the flora and fauna.
(Source. The Farmer Magazine Sept Oct 2023 pp. 45-48; The Harris family)
