The year was 1974; the era of bell bottom pants and Fleetwood Mac was in full swing. Lester E. Zirkle and his son Bill were successfully growing and packing apples in Selah, Washington, but found that their relatively small crop volume limited their market opportunities. They decided to partner with a group of fellow family growers to sell fruit under a single label an arm’s length from their own farm—and Rainier Fruit Company was born.
Before the advent of the dedicated sales desk, Washington treefruit growers packed, marketed, and shipped under their own labels. The Zirkles realized they could gain access to better business by working together with other growers under a unified brand built on the promise of quality and service. While this represented a foundational shift in how growers marketed their product, the centralized model guaranteed more consistent business.
This spirit of innovation influenced many ventures and adaptations over the years—some successful, and others not so much (anyone remember a certain grape-flavored apple?). Through constant trial and error over the years, Rainier Fruit learned and adapted thanks to the dedication of passionate individuals brought together under a common goal. The pursuit of top-notch customer service directed all things, a key foundation in the often chaotic and intensely demanding fresh fruit industry.
Ask Bill Zirkle—still keeping a watchful eye on orchards and packing lines at age 82—if he ever imagined what Rainier Fruit would become 50 years later, and he’ll give you a firm “No!” Growth for the sake of growth was never the goal, but rather out of necessity to maintain the high standard that customers came to expect. This mission of shipping the best fruit that brings consumers back for more holds true today as a core tenet of Rainier Fruit, a half-century later.
