Great Harvest to close Longmont location

LONGMONT — After almost 20 years operating at 1100 Ken Pratt Blvd., Great Harvest Bread Co. will close its oven doors for good, April 17.

Owners announced the closure on Facebook and with a sign at the establishment, which has had five owners since its founding by L.J. Beaupre in 2002.

Mikayla Houseman, who owns the location with her parents, Jason and Heather Merrill, attributed the closure to the COVID-19 pandemic, along with a hike in Colorado’s minimum wage, which was increased Jan. 1 to $12.32 per hour, or $9.30 for tipped workers.

“As of April 30th, our lease is actually up, and after COVID, we just are not going to make it,” Houseman said. “We are in so much debt, the minimum wage went up, and we cannot raise the prices of our bread. We would have had to file bankruptcy if we re-signed the lease.”

Houseman described the operation as a “freedom franchise,” with Dillon, Montana-based Great Harvest Bread Co. providing guidance and support for independent mom-and-pop operators, with local owners “able to do what we want.”

Houseman said that the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, was a heavy blow to the company’s operations, forcing it to drop from 15 employees to six.

“We had to cut down labor,” she said. “That was the problem: We’re not making enough money, and we’re not even breaking even. We have to pay our employees and not pay our rent. So we’re not making the money we need to actually make it or even pay people.

“I really just want people to know that it was really just COVID, and it was just the money,” she said. “We weren’t making the money. It hit us at the wrong time, and our bakery family still loves everyone out there, and we’re going to miss them all so much.”

News of the bakery’s closure has been met with sadness by Great Harvest’s customers.

“We’ve made quite an impact on the community,” Houseman said, referencing reactions from customers coming into the store for one final visit or loaf of bread. “We have a lot of hugs and tears going on. We have people calling us so they can talk to us one more time. It’s been a lot for our customers … I have one guy who comes in for a coffee and that’s it, and he comes in to tell me about his day because he is a widowed old man, and he lost it when he found out. And so every customer has been taking this very hard.”

In addition to Houseman and her parents, her brother and grandma also have worked at the bakery, with her grandma having to stop because of health concerns during COVID. Houseman credited her mother for long hours spent at the bakery.

“Man, that woman rocks,” she said. “She has been running this business without pay for four years.”

Great Harvest has been selling its equipment, marking items as sold once a deal has been struck.

“Right now, we have had quite a few restaurants and bakeries reach out to us,” Houseman said.

And the bakery has also been working to use up its remaining ingredients.

“As far as ingredients go, we’re also going to sell those out,” she said. “We are just baking a whole lot right now, so that [if] people need to come in and freeze six loaves of bread, we have them. So people need to stock up.”

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