Bailey Farms Inc. is a small, family-run operation that started from humble beginnings in 1989. My father Thomas Bailey had a passion for farming even though he had a full-time career. He also farmed strawberries, squash and cherry tomatoes on the side. As children, my brother, sisters (Wayne, Barbara and Tammy) and I grew up helping with the crops. Unfortunately, my father had some misfortune farming in the 80s and filed bankruptcy in 1988. In 1989, we joined forces and bought back one tractor, one disk, one cultivator, one pick-up truck, and a few other essentials - the bare minimum needed to farm a crop!

My personal interest in chile peppers goes back to my teenage years. My best friend’s parents are from Mexico, and whenever I visited there they always treated me to excellent spicy dishes and salsas. I was quickly hooked and when my father and I started our new venture, I decided this was the crop I wanted us to grow and market. This decision came at a time when, the appeal of chile peppers in culinary circles began to increase in popularity and the Hispanic migration infiltrated this region. This timing, my father's experience and support, our determination to provide our customers with unparalleled quality and service, and supermarket buyers who were not afraid to try something new have made our business successful. We have been growing ever since. In 1990, we were doing well to ship 300 cases per week; now, we ship more than 35,000 cases per week!

At first we were only a seasonal operation, shipping only what we grew on the farm in NC from July-Sept. Bailey Farms now offers year-round supplies through our network of contracted grower-partners in Florida and North Carolina. We invested a lot of time and effort finding varieties adaptable to the East coast. Our field trial program was, and continues to be, very aggressive, and we share this information with all of our growers. As the program continues to improve, we now have a complete line of chile and tomatillo varieties that rival the quality and characteristics of produce that previously had to be imported. Some of the varieties that we breed and develop are Bailey Farms exclusives giving us the product that we want to present to the fresh market.

My father passed away in 2002 in a tragic farm accident (see tribute). Now the company is operated by my wife Debbie Bailey, who I married in 1996, and me. She is the best thing that ever happened to me and has always supported me in making this business grow.

The rapid growth over the years has brought the need for us to build new facilities in Oxford and Immokalee. In 2006 a 15,000 sq. ft. facility was completed by our partner Farmer Mikes, LLC to serve some of our customers’ needs from Nov-June when the crops are there. In March of 2007 we will be moving into our new 30,000 sq. ft state-of-the-art facility in Oxford that will be able to handle growth for years to come.

As I am a "Chile-head", I rarely have a meal that does not have something spicy in it. This is why I find it so rewarding to share a product that I love with the world and I hope that we can continue to fuel and feed the demand for spicy food.

Randy Bailey
President,
Bailey Farms Inc.
2/20/07

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