Great Harvest opens first store in CNMI

Great Harvest Bread Co., which boasts of delicious bread from freshly ground wheat, opened its first store in the CNMI last Thursday.

Located in Chalan Kanoa on Beach Road, the newest international franchise store to penetrate the Saipan market is open seven days a week, from 6:30am to 9pm.

Great Harvest Bread Co., which got its start in Dillon, Montana, has more than 200 stores worldwide and has been ranked among the top 500 franchises for more than 18 years.

Triple J Saipan, which holds the bakery’s local franchise, held a ribbon cutting and open house last Aug. 10 to celebrate the opening of Saipan’s newest bakery.

Triple J president and COO Jeff Jones said the difference between a Golden Harvest bread and other bakeries “is we mill our wheat everyday. After grinding the wheat and making it into flour, we bake it right away and nothing could be fresher than that. We use the flour within 48 hours because that’s the way to keep it fresh.”

“We are also the only Golden Harvest franchise that has tortillas-corn and flour in different sizes. We have the machines that could produce hundreds of tortillas in an hour. We know the people in Saipan love tortillas, that is why we insisted on including the tortillas in our bakery,” Jones added.

Great Harvest Bread Co. joins Triple J’s portfolio of Saipan restaurants that include Tony Roma’s, Capricciosa, Truong’s Vietnamese Restaurant, Surf Club restaurant, and Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.

“I think Triple J became interested in purchasing a Great Harvest franchise because they thought it would do well in a community like this and that’s how the ball got rolling,” said Great Harvest franchising trainer Greta Holzhiemer.

Golden Harvest Bread Co.’s “slow baking” technique does it without shortcuts or preservatives.

“We mill our flour, ensuring fresh bread every single day. We only put five ingredients into our honey whole wheat bread—our freshly milled whole wheat flour, water, yeast , salt, and honey. We don’t put any artificial flavors or preservatives into any of our bread,” Holzhiemer added.

The bakery is the first of its kind for the Northern Marianas and will offer special menu items unique to Saipan that include sandwiches, soups, bread bowls, salads, fresh loaves, cookies, and other sweet goodies.

Donovan Jose P. Castro, head baker of Great Harvest, said, “The bread that we make is fresh. We come in at 4am and start baking, so when people come in at 8am, they can expect hot fresh bread.”

“I highly recommend that people should come here and support Great Harvest. It is a great addition and enhancement to Chalan Kanoa and to the CNMI in general. It is good for the economy,” said Rep. Donald C. Barcinas (R-Saipan).

“This is another good feature on island because it is a brand name that is well recognized in the United States,” said Marianas Visitors Authority managing director Chris Concepcion. “We are very happy they opened a branch here in the CNMI. We understand they plan to open a second branch in the Garapan area so we are happy about that.”

He added, “This kind of franchises and international brands are very popular with tourists from around our region and so MVA will work closely with Triple J to promote this venture.”

Visit Great Harvest Bread Co. and enjoy their promo from Aug. 11 to 18, 2017. When customers buy any loaf, they will receive a free loaf of honey whole wheat bread.

For more information visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/greatharvestbreadsaipan/