Our Story
Six generations
on the same soil.
The Armock family came to the United States in 1840 and went to work farming. Every generation since has done the same.
1840
It starts with a crossing.
The Armock family came to the United States in 1840. The Midwest offered opportunity in agriculture, and they went to work farming. Every generation since has farmed.
Six generations later, Don Armock runs the company his family’s work made possible. His own children are in the business now.
“There is a real attachment to the soil,” he says. That attachment is the whole reason any of the rest of this exists.
Timeline
How we got here.
1840
The Armock family arrives in the United States, drawn to the Midwest by opportunity in agriculture.
1990
Don Armock founds Riveridge as a sales and marketing firm for a group of growers.
1995
Riveridge Land Company plants its first 220 acres of apples in Sparta.
2009
Riveridge acquires the former Alpine Apple Haus facility in Sparta and builds its own integrated packing, storage and distribution operation.
2010
Riveridge earns verification under the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program.
2019
Riveridge acquires the sales operation of Jack Brown Produce, bringing the network to more than half of Michigan’s fresh apple crop.
Today
More than 150 family farms across six growing regions, ten packing and storage facilities, and 860 acres of our own ground.
1990
A sales desk for people who would rather be in the orchard.
Don Armock started Riveridge as a sales and marketing firm for a group of growers. The problem they were solving has not changed. Family farms grow exceptional fruit and do not have the sales team, the scale or the retail relationships to move it.
What has changed is everything downstream. Riveridge added its own orchards, its own packing, its own cider plant. Not because owning things is the goal, but because quality is won or lost in the middle of the supply chain.
What Changed
Shoppers stopped knowing their grower.
The variety mix keeps shifting. Retail keeps moving online. And as it does, customers get further and further from knowing who actually grew the fruit in the bag.
“There is a feeling on the part of people that they would like to have some connection with where that comes from,” Don says.
That is the gap this company sits in. We can name the family, the farm and the county behind what we ship. Very few can.
How We Operate
It is a trust business.
Produce is comprised of families, and family farms thrive by sharing the best technology, insights and practices with one another. A new rootstock, a trellis system, a storage protocol. Somebody tries it, and the rest of the network finds out how it went.
“In the environment we operate in, it is a trust business,” Don says. “And along with that, there is an openness that exists.”
After four decades in it, what he says he is proudest of is not the acreage or the facilities. It is the people, and having been part of who they became.
Looking Ahead
Having a flexible long-term vision is what keeps a company ahead of consumer preference. New varieties emerge, tastes move, technology advances. Generationally, there is knowledge that only comes with time.
We are proud of where we came from. We are more excited about where we are growing next.