From an 1893 hillside homestead to EFI-certified orchards and proprietary apples like Cosmic Crisp, the Mathison family pairs heritage farming with modern innovations that curb waste and elevate flavor
Stemilt Growers is a family-run produce company headquartered in Wenatchee, Washington, where five generations of the Mathison family have cultivated apples, pears and cherries on the slopes overlooking the Columbia River since the first homestead was deeded in 1893.
From that hillside farm the business has evolved into one of the state’s largest tree-fruit operations, marketing what it calls “World Famous Fruit” to retailers across North America and beyond.
The brand’s origins lie in the determination of founder Thomas Kyle Mathison, known as Tom, who returned from World War II to take over the orchard after his father’s unexpected death.
A disastrous 1958 cherry season 100 tons of fruit earned just $88 forced him to rethink every step of the supply chain.
Within a few years he was studying harvest methods in California, redesigning packing practices and following his cherries to eastern markets to see where quality broke down.
By 1964 he was packing neighbors’ crops as well as his own, and the enterprise took the name Stemilt Growers, a nod to the Native American word meaning “coming from the mountains.”
Expansion came quickly.
A modern packing-and-storage facility rose at Olds Station in 1975, followed by the introduction of fruit stickers in 1982 so shoppers could “know who grew their apples.”
Tom also launched the Responsible Choice® program in 1989 well ahead of most produce industry sustainability efforts bringing integrated pest management to the orchards, experimenting with organics and even bagging cherries when bulk sales were the norm.
Today Stemilt farms thousands of acres from California’s Delta region north to 3,800-foot elevations on Stemilt Hill.
Its catalog features mainstream varieties such as Gala, Fuji and Bartlett alongside proprietary offerings like Rave®, Piñata® and Skylar Rae® cherries.
A separate Artisan Organics™ line supplies year-round organic apples, pears and stone fruit, continuing the commitment Tom made when he first converted acreage in the late 1980s.
Technological investment has followed the growth.
In 2018 the company opened the Fresh Cube, an automated distribution center that consolidates post-packing activities and houses a ripening facility for pears.
Automated optical sizing equipment now scans each apple for external and internal defects, while a high-altitude compost farm recycles green waste into nutrient-rich fertilizers.
These upgrades support quality aims but also environmental targets: Stemilt is pursuing zero food waste to landfill and expects logistics changes to save more than half a million gallons of fuel annually by 2030, goals embedded in the Responsible Choice roadmap.
People initiatives mirror the technical ones.
Stemilt became the first U.S. tree-fruit company to earn full certification across all company-owned orchards and packing houses from the Equitable Food Initiative in 2021, a process that required meeting more than 300 labor, food-safety and pest-management standards.
On-site health clinics, opened in 2013 and later expanded, now offer free primary care and pharmacy services to employees and their families.
That foundation sets the stage for current market moves.
Stemilt is steering retailers toward the tart-green Granny Smith apple as summer supplies of Honeycrisp and organics tighten.
Granny Smith offers retailers a great way to keep the apple category active and relevant through seasonal promotions.
The apple plays a leading role in volume across Texas-led southern markets and captures 12.6 percent of apple movement even in the West, where it ranks fourth overall.
Bulk bins can anchor large displays, she advises, while packaged formats such as the three-pound Lil Snappers® pouch appeal to families looking for grab-and-go fruit during road-trip season.
Seasonal positioning builds on a broader promotional arc.
Earlier this year Stemilt declared 2025 “the year of the Cosmic Crisp,” spotlighting the Honeycrisp-Enterprise cross that is up 57 percent in volume while national Honeycrisp supplies are reportedly down by nearly a third.
Packaging and merchandising are evolving in tandem.
At the International Fresh Produce Association’s 2024 Global Floral and Produce Show, the company previewed new recyclable EZ Band packs for organic pears and rolled out the “World Famous Fruit by World Famous Families” campaign a nod not just to the Mathisons but to multi-generation employee families as well.
Despite the marketing push, executives insist the heart of Stemilt’s strategy remains agronomic fine-tuning.
Fifth-generation grower Kyle Mathison experiments with lunar-calendar harvests and nutrient-dense compost to extend cherry season “as many months of the year as possible,” while his nephew West, company president since 2005, oversees investments meant to “leave the land as good as we can, or better if we can,” echoing his grandfather’s maxim.
Industry analysts credit those twin pillars innovation in the orchard and disciplined storytelling at retail with keeping Stemilt competitive in a crowded apple category.
The company says it now supplies the nation’s largest share of organic tree fruit and can stretch Northwest cherry availability from early May to early September, giving buyers flexibility that few rivals match.
Even so, leadership is careful not to overpromise.
Shales acknowledges that weather and labor costs add volatility to every crop year and that consumer tastes shift quickly in produce.
The task, she says, is to “delight consumers and cultivate people through excellence” rather than chase superlatives a mission grounded in the values of humility, trust, integrity and stewardship that Tom Mathison wrote into company culture six decades ago.
Stemilt’s course appears set: continuous improvement in service of fruit that lives up to a name first stamped on an apple sticker back in 1982.
