Shoreline Fruit in Michigan: History, What It Grows, How It Makes Money and How to Contact It

Profile updated November 2026

Shoreline Fruit is a grower-owned tart cherry company based around Williamsburg and Traverse City, Michigan, that describes about 6,000 acres of orchards and typically more than 25 million pounds of Montmorency cherries a year. A regional news feature called it the largest tart cherry operation in North America, and Farm Credit profiled it as a partnership of two farm families.

History of Shoreline Fruit

The roots of Shoreline Fruit go back to 1969, when the Gregory and Veliquette families began growing, harvesting and selling cherries in northern Michigan. A regional news feature describes the founders as brothers Bob and Don Gregory and Dean, Gene and Norm Veliquette, who started on a few leased acres in the late 1960s. That slow, land-by-land growth is the pattern behind most large fruit businesses in the Grand Traverse region.

Over the following decades the families added pitting services and sold fruit to other processors. In 2008 they began processing finished goods for customers directly, and Shoreline Fruit was formed. Farm Credit's profile notes that the growers were among the first cherry farms in northern Michigan to earn USDA Good Agricultural Practices certification, a food-safety credential that matters to large retail and ingredient buyers.

What Shoreline Fruit Grows and Raises

Michigan grows a very large share of the nation's tart cherries, and the Michigan Farm Bureau puts the state's share at nearly 75 percent of U.S. supply. Shoreline Fruit sits at the center of that industry. Its Montmorency tart cherries come from orchards run by the partner families, including operations that trade under the Cherry Bay Orchards and Gregory Brothers Farms names, and the fruit is handled at a production facility in Williamsburg.

The facility presses fruit during the short summer harvest window and works year-round on drying, juice packaging and concentrate bottling, according to a 2019 local television tour. Because the company controls the chain from orchard to finished product, it can manage quality and food safety at each step rather than selling raw fruit into a volatile market. Its own consumer brand, Cherry Bay Orchards, sells dried fruit, concentrates and juices through an online store and specialty distributors.

How Shoreline Fruit Makes Money

Tart cherry production and processing

Shoreline Fruit grows Montmorency tart cherries and processes them into products for other companies. Farm Credit lists dried products, concentrates and juices, frozen dessert and ingredient products, nutraceuticals and maraschino cherries among its lines.

Retail and branded products

The company says its products reach retail shelves, and a 2019 report said they were in about 1,800 Walmart stores nationally, with Meijer described as its first retail customer. The Cherry Bay Orchards brand adds direct online sales of dried fruit, juice and concentrate.

Ingredient and contract supply

Finished goods processing for customers, begun in 2008, lets the company serve food manufacturers that need consistent tart cherry ingredients. Pitting services, added earlier, were an earlier step toward that value-added position.

Farm Insight: What Other Operators Can Learn from Shoreline Fruit

The main lesson is vertical integration built in stages. The families started with growing and selling fruit, added pitting, then moved into finished goods. Each step captured margin that a raw-fruit grower would otherwise hand to a processor, and each was built on fruit they already controlled.

A second lesson is the value of certification and partnership. Early GAP certification opened doors with large buyers, and the shared ownership between two families spreads capital needs and risk. Smaller orchards can borrow the idea through cooperatives and marketing groups even if they cannot build a plant.

How to Contact Shoreline Fruit

Shoreline Fruit Sources and Agriculture Authority Links

• Shoreline Fruit - Company website as named in local news coverage
• Farm Credit story on Shoreline Fruit - History, acreage and products
• Inside the country's largest tart cherry operation - Regional news feature on the founding families
• Michigan Farm Bureau agriculture facts - State commodity rankings including cherries
• USDA NASS 2022 Census, Michigan - State farm counts and sales

Shoreline Fruit FAQ

What is Shoreline Fruit?

It is a grower-owned tart cherry company in the Williamsburg and Traverse City area of Michigan, formed in 2008 from two farm families who began growing cherries in 1969.

How big is Shoreline Fruit?

Farm Credit describes about 6,000 acres of orchards and typically more than 25 million pounds of Montmorency tart cherries a year.

What does Shoreline Fruit sell?

Dried cherries, concentrates and juices, frozen dessert and ingredient products, nutraceuticals and maraschino cherries, plus the Cherry Bay Orchards consumer brand.

How can I contact Shoreline Fruit?

Use the company website, shorelinefruit.com, for current contact information.

Shoreline Fruit shows how a cherry grower can climb from leased acres to a processing company without leaving the orchard behind. Read the Michigan state guide for the climate, programs and markets behind that story, and browse the other profiled Michigan operations for different paths to scale.