Driscoll's, Inc.

What does Driscoll's own?
Driscoll's owns proprietary berry plant genetics, breeding facilities, nurseries, and the Driscoll's brand. Most fruit is grown by roughly 750 licensed independent growers rather than company farms.

Is Driscoll's publicly traded?
No. Driscoll's is privately held by the Reiter and Driscoll families and has never listed publicly.

Who founded Driscoll's?
J.E. "Ed" Reiter and R.F. "Dick" Driscoll founded the business in California's Pajaro Valley, formally organized in 1904 around the Banner strawberry.

Where is Driscoll's headquartered?
Watsonville, California, in the heart of the Pajaro Valley strawberry region where the company began.

Who owns Driscoll's?
The founding Reiter and Driscoll families own the company. Miles Reiter is chairman and Brie Reiter Smith is CEO, the fourth generation in leadership.

Does Driscoll's grow its own berries?
Mostly no. It breeds proprietary varieties and licenses them to independent growers who cultivate the fruit; Driscoll's markets and distributes it.

The company traces to the late 1800s in California's Pajaro Valley, where J.E. "Ed" Reiter and his brother-in-law R.F. "Dick" Driscoll began growing strawberries during the region's berry boom. The business was formally organized in 1904 around the Banner strawberry variety, marketed as Banner Berry Farm's Brand.

A virus wiped out the Banner variety in the 1920s, pushing the company into breeding. Partnerships with University of California breeders Harold Thomas and Earl Goldsmith produced generations of proprietary varieties and established the R&D-first model Driscoll's still runs.

The modern corporation, Driscoll Strawberry Associates, took shape in the postwar decades as the family professionalized breeding, grower licensing, and marketing. It shortened its consumer name to Driscoll's and built the clamshell-packaged brand that dominates US berry shelves.

Expansion made it global: grower networks in Mexico, Morocco, Spain, Peru, Chile, and Australia turned the company into a year-round supplier. Today it controls roughly a third of the US berry market and an estimated majority of the organic strawberry segment.

Driscoll's organic lines carry USDA Organic and EU-equivalent certification through its grower network, the most substantive independent credential in the portfolio. The company reports labor and environmental programs through its own sustainability disclosures rather than external certification bodies like B Lab.

Driscoll's most persistent scrutiny concerns farm labor. Advocacy groups and press investigations have criticized working conditions and pay at independent growers supplying the brand, particularly in Mexico, though the growers rather than Driscoll's employ the workers. The company responds through grower welfare standards and audits.

A 2021 legal dispute with berry breeder José Ramón Mohar over proprietary strawberry genetics, in which courts found infringement of Driscoll's plant patents, ended in Driscoll's favor and reinforced its IP moat.