fruit founded 1964 founder tom mathison headquarters wenatchee washington u.s. key people west mathison president products cherries apples pears peaches nectarines number of employees 1 500 website www.stemilt.com stemilt growers is a family owned tree fruit growing packing and shipping company based in wenatchee washington . stemilt is the largest fresh market sweet cherry shipper in the world 1 and one of the nation s largest grower packer shippers of apples pears cherries and stone fruit . its signature apple varieties include pi ata honeycrisp 2 gala and pink lady . the company is also a leader in organic fruit production producing 26 % of washington s organic apples and 32 % of the pacific northwest s organic pears . 3 in 2008 the company shipped over 20 million boxes of fruit and employed 1 500 people full time . 4 contents 1 history 1.1 name 2 references 3 external links history edit stemilt s company history dates back to 1893 when the mathison family homesteaded 160 acres 0.65 km2 on stemilt hill near wenatchee washington . the family planted its first 10 acres 40 000 m2 of apples pears and cherries in 1914 . by 1947 tom mathison a third generation farmer took the lead in the family orchard business . he built a fruit packing house on stemilt hill in 1961 . 5 in 1964 tom mathison founded stemilt growers and began packing fruit for other growers . 6 in 1975 mathison built a new packing and storage facility at olds station in wenatchee which would soon become the new company headquarters . in july 2005 tom mathison transferred the company presidency to his grandson west mathison . 7 tom mathison died in 2008 . 4 name edit stemilt is a native american word for foothills . it is also a region of agriculture land located near the cascade mountains and city of wenatchee washington . 8 references edit stemilt growers . inc . answers.com . retrieved 28 august 2009 . honeycrisp apples a crowd favorite . www.stemilt.com . retrieved 2016 01 04 . dininny shannon 23 april 2009 . stemilt has all organic peaches nectarines . seattle times . retrieved 28 august 2009 . a b apple industry icon dies from cancer . seattle times . 30 december 2008 . retrieved 28 august 2009 . marshall maureen e. agriculture in wenatchee . kindle publishing 2013 . stemilt founder thomas mathison dead at 82 . supermarket news . 5 january 2009 . retrieved 28 august 2009 . west mathison named stemilt president . capital press . 8 july 2009 . retrieved 28 august 2009 . frequently asked questions answers stemilt . stemilt growers . retrieved 28 august 2009 . external links edit official website stemilt growers inc. information from answers.com this washington related article is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title stemilt growers & oldid 698299320 categories companies based in washington state agriculture companies of the united stateswashington state stubshidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parametersall stub articles navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 5 january 2016 at 06 32 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view