Processing Fruit into Juices, Concentrates and Purees Since 1929

Growers’ Co-op got its start as Concord grape pricing was collapsing at the start of the Great Depression. Eleven farmers decided to use the newly created legal entity of a cooperative corporation, where the farmers own the processing plant. Since 1929, farmer-owners have been pooling their Concord grapes at Growers’ Co-op, which turns the fruit into value added products and returns all earnings to the family farmers.

Our one plant is on the site of the original 1929 construction, but has been expanded significantly since. The first year, 400 tons of Concord grapes were pressed into juice. Now that is less than a shift’s work. Back then all juice was stored in 5 gallon glass carboys. Long ago we switched to modern bulk tanks, although we still use some of the redwood tanks from 1949. The original presses used a rack and frame technology, but this was superseded by screw presses and more now modern decanter centrifuges.

For Growers’ first 30 years, the value added product that Growers made was bottled single strength juice. By the late 1960s Growers was not competitive at making this product, under its Autumn Brand label or bottling for others. With the advent of the mechanical grape harvester at the same time, Growers focused on larger scale bulk production of juices and then juice concentrates. Significant bulk storage capacity was built in 1968 and 1973. Evaporators were installed in 1981 and 1985. While that lead to greater capacity, new pressing equipment added in 1988 boosted throughput. More tanks were added throughout the 1990s. A decanter centrifuge was added in 1993 and then upgraded in 2012.

The down side of processing only grapes is that all of the equipment added over the years was really only used for 30 days each year. By the early 2000s, Growers started contract processing. In Growers off-season, other companies that didn’t have juice processing equipment sent fruit to us to efficiently turn their culls into value added products that they could sell. Growers started with cherries, and then blueberries. While these two remain the anchors of our summer processing schedule, we believe we can run any non-citrus fruit.

Growers has added other grapes to its portfolio as well. Niagara and Catawba grape juice is in demand by the wine industry so our farmer-owners who raise these grapes deliver them here as well.

Through our 90+ years of history, Growers still remains as the reliable home for our family farmer-owner’s Concord and other grapes.