Fruit Packer Quitting Business Big Debts, Low Fruit Prices Force Pacific Fruit Growers To Shut Down
In a sign that Washington may be producing too many apples, a large Columbia Basin fruit packer and orchard company has decided to shut down and auction itself to the highest bidder.
Pacific Fruit Growers & Packers Inc., a Yakima-based company which has orchards in five counties, will go on the block June 28. County assessors value the company’s real estate and personal property at $16.5 million.
Chase Manhattan Corp. and a French bank that together own 71 percent of Pacific Fruit plan to pack the last boxes in July and close in August.
About 200 Pacific Fruit employees are waiting to see whether the company will be sold intact to someone who wants to operate it or if it will be auctioned piece by piece.
“There could be a group of farmers who want to buy the whole thing or another warehouse that wants a larger facility,” said Stan Bostrom, general manager of Pacific Fruit. “People have been calling us, but we don’t know their level of interest.”
The sale, however, is not for novices. Bidders must display a $25,000 cashier’s check to enter the auction at company headquarters in Yakima.
Pacific Fruit has been in financial trouble since it was created in 1988 by merging packing sheds in Yakima and Wenatchee and 12 different apple, pear and cherry orchards that stretch from Connell to Omak, Wash. By 1992, the company was seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and selling its Wenatchee shed.
Big debts, low fruit prices and a heavy dependence on old variety, light-skinned apples have kept profits low, forcing the decision to divest, Bostrom said.
Meanwhile, Washington apple growers have boosted production by 25 percent in two years, harvesting a record 92 million boxes in 1994. The bumper crop has depressed Red Delicious prices and made it difficult to operate profitably, according to Grower’s Clearinghouse, a Wenatchee-based market service for 2,800 producers.
Pacific Fruit assets for sale include: a 20-acre packing plant, 14 forklifts, five tractors, a bulldozer and a Honda all-terrain vehicle. In addition, bids will be taken on more than 1,100 acres of orchards in Cashmere, Quincy, Royal City, Connell, Omak, Yakima and Zillah.
, DataTimes MEMO: Pacific Fruit has hired James G. Murphy Co. in Seattle to manage the auction. Information on the sale is available at 1-800-426-3008.