Chris Sarles, the president and CEO of Oregon Fruit Products LLC, standing next to some of his company’s canned fruits waiting to be shipped. (Jake Thomas/Salem Reporter)
With stacked pallets of tin cans towering above him and the smell of cooking fruit wafting through the cavernous building, Chris Sarles described how over eight decades of history weigh upon him.
Six years ago, Sarles took over as president and CEO of Oregon Fruit Products, a Salem company that has been canning cherries, boysenberries, raspberries and other fruits since it was formed during the Great Depression.
Throughout those years, the company always found a way to make it through tough times, he said. During World War II, the company switched to canning asparagus and other vegetables to stay afloat, he said.
“I don’t want to be the guy who messes up what’s been done here for 85 years,” said Sarles, who proudly points out that multiple generations of families work at the company. “I feel like the caretaker of this legacy.”
Sarles recalled the uncertainty the company faced as the pandemic hit. Unlike many other businesses, the pandemic has boosted business at Oregon Fruit, which has products in stores across the U.S. and in 15 countries.
It’s a reversal for the industry after consumers had opted for fresh fruits and vegetables over canned, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
But as anxious consumers stocked their pantries and turned to baking fruit pies while in quarantine, companies like Oregon Fruit have seen sales grow.
According to Heather Jones, a consultant who works with the company, Oregon Fruit recorded an 80% increase in retail sales from last spring. In particular, its sales of canned blueberries to national retailers and online tripled.
With sales up, Sarles said the company will continue looking for ways to keep the company viable.
‘How did these cans get here?’
After Sarles took over the company from the Gehlar family, which owned it for generations, he traveled to meet its customers. One of those customers was Louisiana-based Tabasco, which uses raspberries processed by Oregon Fruit in one of its hot sauces.
On his way to the company’s headquarters in Avery Island, Louisiana, he stopped in a convenience store, where he was surprised to find cans from Oregon Fruit on its shelves.
“I thought to myself, ‘How did these cans get here?’” he said.
“In today’s world, that would be a hard place to go sell a new product.”
After building up the brand’s reach over decades, Sarles said the company’s cans of red tart cherries, blackberries and others still have the same recognizable label used by grandmothers to bake pies since 1935.
Two years ago, the company moved into a 165,000-square-foot facility located at 3180 22nd St. S.E. that used to be a NORPAC plant. At the facility, workers and forklifts scurry about and echoes from the rattle and whir of machines, some in use since the 1950s and 60s, can be heard throughout much of the building.
Sarles said that before the pandemic, the canned fruit industry had been flat or in decline. But the pandemic has generated nice growth, he said.
“Canning has always been something we’ve done in the valley for decades and decades, in part, because fruit spoils and you have to do something with it,” said James Sterns, an associate professor of applied economics at Oregon State University.
He said that producers get their best prices selling their products on the fresh fruit market. But the pandemic has disrupted fruit and vegetable sales that would normally go to restaurants and others relying on fresh product, he said.
Sterns said in recent years the canning industry has faced headwinds as consumers increasingly viewed canned products as not as healthy because of the added sugar.
But he said with the pandemic, consumers are making fewer trips to the grocery store and are stocking up on stable items, including canned fruit.
In April, a market research firm projected the packaged food industry, including canned goods, to rise by 377% because of the pandemic.
Sterns said it’s not clear if the trend is here to stay.
“I think everyone’s crystal ball is broken,” he said.
Chris Sarles, president and CEO of the Oregon Fruit Products LLC, shows labels for products sold by the company decades ago. Sarles says that the company has a long story that he hopes to carry on. (Jake Thomas/Salem Reporter)
A classic favorite, and what’s new
In the office at Oregon Fruit, Sarles leafed through a cabinet drawer to pull out packaging once used for sliced strawberries and cherry pie filling, two products the company no longer makes.
Sarles spends more time thinking about new products and ways to diversify the company’s product line to sustain the business. He said he’s been able to grow the business, which employs just under 100 workers, by selling processed fruit to be used in other products.
After previously working for a beverage distributor, Sarles has built up Oregon Fruits business with brewers and distillers, selling them aseptic pouches of pureed raspberry or other fruits to be used in beverages. He said that his research and development team is looking into producing more exotic fruits but wouldn’t say which ones.
The company continues to look into increasing the appeal of canned fruit. Sarles said that earlier this year, the company launched a new line of canned blueberries in blueberry juice, instead of light cane sugar.
“Our hope is that we’re targeting a different consumer, someone who’s health-conscious,” he said.
He said the company planned to release cherries in juice but that was put on hold by the pandemic. Sarles said he also hopes that shoppers who stocked up on canned fruit will stick with it, eating it as a snack, putting it in cocktails or topping desserts.
“I like to think that innovation is so important to consumers today,” he said. “They’re very interested not only in their classic favorite, but they also want to see what’s new, right?”
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Contact reporter Jake Thomas at 503-575-1251 or [email protected] or @jakethomas2009.
