Leelanau Fruit Company (LFC) was founded in the mid 1960's. Our present facility was built in 1970. Mr. Glenn LaCross purchased controlling interest of LFC in 1992 and still serves as President. Mr. LaCross is a native of Leelanau County and has personally been in the cherry business since 1966.

LFC processes strawberries, brine cherries, red tart cherries, dark sweet cherries, plums, and peaches. It is not unusual for LFC to process 10-15 million pounds of cherries each season. LFC's processing capabilities include brining, punch pitting, Elliott pitting, slicing, pureeing, individual quick freezing, and bulk freezing.

In 1996, LFC pioneered the marketing of tart cherry juice concentrate in the United States. LFC continues to package tart cherry juice concentrate for retail sale year round.

LFC has purchased a second plant in Buckley, Michigan in order to process brine cherries into Maraschino Cherries.

We have about 30 year round full-time employees here, and hire up to 120 seasonal employees in the summer months. There are many different jobs available at LFC, but the most common is sorting fruit on the line. We also need maintenance personal, general laborers, hi-lo drivers and quality control inspectors.

We process strawberries starting the second week of June through the first week of July. Sweet cherry processing starts the first week of July and runs to the end of July. Tart cherry processing starts the last week of July and runs until the middle of August. We process peaches and plums for about two weeks in September. We process brine cherries September through June.

Workers are paid minimum wage or more depending on skill and experience. In our off-season when we are processing brine cherries, the average work week is 40 hours. During our strawberry season the workweek varies from 30 - 50 hours depending on the crop. For both our sweet and tart cherry season the work week ranges from 50-70 hours depending on the crop as well. For our peach and plum processing we average 40-hour per work week. Employees are paid on a weekly basis.

LFC does not offer onsite housing

Leelanau county and surrounding counties furnish supportive services such as migrant daycare, migrant education, and migrant health services. The local DHS (Department of Human Services) offers Medicaid, daycare and food stamp services.

Workers must comply with all government employment documentation requirements (I-9, W-4, etc.) before they can be hired.