Catherine Harris: Bringing Farms Closer to Your Table

When Harris Farms first set up for business in 1971 Australian entrepreneurship was exclusively reserved for men. Catherine Harris has forged a path not only for women to have a fair shot at being a successful Australian entrepreneur but to bravely pioneer new concepts with her cofounder and husband David. Her values and the founding principles, meshed into Harris Farm Markets from the beginning, have changed the way we shop for food in our communities by promoting sustainable practices and reducing food waste. She has shown that it is possible to run a successful business while also being environmentally conscious. But her story highlights it not easy to take a different approach. Considering that today only 22.3 per cent of Australia’s founders are women, she is a force. Not only in starting a business but revolutionising an industry with dominate players.?

I had the delight of hearing her personal story last week at an intimate community breakfast in Lane Cove Sydney. Ironically the community where her life began, steps from one of their largest stores. (Part of the Harris Farms Market network of 26 and counting stores across NSW, Victoria and Queensland.) The?perseverance?she demonstrated throughout her career is inspiring for anyone. What fascinated me was her passion for learning and ability to constantly seek out opportunities to build new skills. She has forever impacted Australian retail with her unwavering belief that there a better retail business model for the community, the environment, farmers and employees.

Early Life and Career

She was born as Catherine Mary Rossi into a family of Italian heritage. Incredibly her mother was also a trailblazer as a travel industry doyenne and philanthropist. She spoke of the sense of local community interest relating to a recent fire at her historical home, and the joy of growing up in a lifestyle focused on food and family.? She met her husband David while studying at the University of New South Wales. After completing her studies, she started her career with the iconic Australian retailers, David Jones, and Grace Brothers.

Founding of Harris Farms

David’s family had a successful business but encouraged him to start his own. Harris Farms was founded on the advice of finding a gap that the “big guys” did not cover. The opportunity Catherine and her husband set their sights on was to create a community-based food retailer, focused on providing sustainable food options to local customers, while minimizing environmental impact. They found themselves learning from their early employees, locals from the multicultural West Sydney migrant suburb of Villawood. They built the business around values based on the bounty of seasons, possibilities of farm to table, zero-waste, access to diverse markets, and to fill a void in Australian food retailing at the time.

With Catherine as a cofounder the business benefitted from her association of fresh food with community. Outside of a corporate role she had the “flexibility” to raise 5 children but at a time of key expansion when the investors did not feel comfortable with female leadership and subsequently, she stepped down from her leadership role. Almost everything was lost due to investors pushing for growth at all costs. The high interest era of the 1970’s pushed them to take on overseas loans to support a network of 27 stores. Through a renewed partnership that brought Catherine back in the business and a practical downsizing to 3 stores, the business was redesigned. This time without the investors. Listening to staff, going back to the basics they rebuilt their business overtime. As a farm owner, Catherine was and is still a force in promoting awareness in Australia of the link between food retailing, farms, and reliance on climate.

Lifelong career and advice for female entrepreneurs

Catherine’s Harris acknowledged that challenge and grit are a 24 X 7 reality that comes with owning our own business. Yet she managed to carve out time outside of Chairperson of Harris Farms Australia for causes most urgent and to fuel her curiosity, as well as ESG passions. She has been awarded AO, PSM, FAICD and Honorary Consul General for Bhutan in Australia. She has sat on many boards including the Museum of Contemporary Art, The National Gallery of Australia, the Australian Rugby League Commission, The Sydney Cricket and Sports Ground Trust, and Deputy Chancellor of the UNSW Business School. ?

She has a track record of big ideas, an inspiration for women today to break out of the “demands of corporate career” to own their destiny and forge positive change. Her face lit up as she spoke of her diplomacy efforts with Bhutan, a nation that measures gross happiness and not GDP. She believes many while organisations today focus on customers; they still count employees as costs rather than assets. Her advice is to align entrepreneurial ambitions with your values and invest in lifelong learning.

It was an honour to listen and share Catherine Harris’s story. No doubt there is much more to come. It was unexpected opportunity to meet some young female food start up founders starting on their journey. May it incite women and all business founders to lifelong action, to ignite change and challenge the norms of business founders.