Reser’s Fine Foods, the R&FF 2025 Processor of the Year, has grown from a single recipe, home-based business to a nationwide presence with thousands of employees and multiple production facilities.

Founded in 1950 by Mildred Reser, the company began as a single-recipe potato salad business based in an Oregon farmhouse kitchen. Seventy-five years later, it has grown into the largest family-owned, prepared foods businesses in the U.S., producing a diverse portfolio of refrigerated side dishes, including macaroni & cheese, scalloped and mashed potatoes, dips, deli salads and tortillas, sold in over 27,000 outlets across the U.S. and Canada.

“It’s an honor to be recognized as we celebrate our 75th anniversary and reflect on our longevity as a business. There are not many companies who have reached our size that have remained family owned. We owe our success to the long-term relationships we’ve built in the industry and our commitments to customer service, quality and innovation. It’s great to be recognized for these things at such a meaningful time in our company’s history,” said Mark Reser, president and CEO, and third-generation family member. “Our business would not have been able to enjoy growth in the way that we have without our foundation of committed employees, and we are grateful for that longevity and desire to bring their best selves to work every day.”

The company, and its nearly 5,000 employees, operate multiple facilities totaling 2 million square feet in Hillsboro and Salem Oregon; Topeka, Kansas; Pasco, Washington; Vista, California; Halifax, North Carolina; Memphis, Tennessee and Linares, Mexico, each specializing in key product categories:

• Deli Salads: Classic varieties like potato, macaroni, cole slaw and pasta salads, as well as protein and specialty salads.
• Gourmet Dips & Sauces.
• Hot Sides & Entrées: Including mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, gravies, and baked side dishes, with advanced hot fill capabilities.
• Fresh Cut Potatoes & Fruit: Precision slicing and packaging for quality and freshness.
• Mexican Foods: Tortillas, burritos, wraps, and salsas.
• Desserts & Gelatins: Offerings including puddings and gelatins.
• Meal Kits & more: Party trays, meal kits and customized items.
• Key customers span the club channel, retail delis and meat departments, foodservice and convenience stores.

Their slogan, “Proud Sponsor of Good Times Since 1950,” reflects a commitment to Reser’s products being a part of summer cookouts and holiday entertaining for generations of Americans.

Last year, Reser’s reached $2 billion in sales.

Some of the best-selling products include Reser's Deviled Egg Potato Salad, Main St Bistro Baked Scalloped Potatoes, Don Pancho Tortillas, Stonemill Kitchens Dips.

“We've focused on core competencies in salads, sides, dips, and meal kits across sales channels, growing and adapting in each of these areas to meet our customers’ needs,” Reser said.

Many of its facilities deploy automation, including robotic palletizers and recipe-driven packaging systems that help drive throughput in high-mix production environments. Advanced inspection systems—including multi-head weighers, checkweighers, and X-ray units—ensure product integrity at high speeds, supporting Reser’s goal of lean manufacturing.

All food processing and manufacturing facilities are certified to SQF Food Safety and Quality Codes and have validated HACCP plans across all product categories.

Reser’s quality control teams perform routine testing of finished goods to detect and prevent contamination, including daily organoleptic evaluations like sensory testing.

Each manufacturing facility has a Continuous Improvement team that works cross-functionally to reduce waste, improve efficiency and enhance customer value.

To maximize shelf life, Reser’s keeps minimal inventory on hand, relying on its strategically located manufacturing and distribution facilities.

“We also streamline operations by investing in brand new processes,” Reser said. “For example, we’ve made our own dressings mayonnaise for a number of years. We’ve recently begun investing in producing our own fresh pasta in-house. Beyond cost savings, such initiatives can improve product reliability, consistency and freshness.”

The company says that typically allows delivery to a customer's location within 10 days of order, via a mix of company-owned fleet and 3PLs.

Reser’s ‘Swiss Army Knife’

Located in the heart of Washington’s agricultural region, the 340,000-square-foot Pasco facility processes over a half-million pounds of potatoes a day.

Opened in 2022, it is three times the size of a previous facility originally opened across the street in 1999.

R&FF toured Reser’s Pasco plant last month, during peak production ahead of the busy holiday season.

Home to the Columbia River basin, the region is home to some of the world’s highest potato yields.

Most of the potatoes Reser’s uses at its Pasco site are grown within 50 miles and “sometimes right across the street,” said General Manager, Rob Wiskerchen, who has been with the company for over 23 years.

Once unloaded, potatoes are washed, scrubbed and sorted – Yukon, russet varieties, or red – before making their way to a peeling line.

Bathed in steam, the peel is loosened and removed, to be used for animal feed. The potatoes move to a trim table before an optical sorter examines them.

“We’ve got numerous recipes for mashed potatoes – some of them are customer-driven, others are our own recipes,” Wiskerchen said. “A typical batch is 1,800 pounds of mashed potatoes.”

Potatoes are then diced, cooked and mashed, then fed via an automated auger for blending in the dairy components and customizing different textures and spices.

Potatoes are then transferred to automated filling machines, packaged in a variety of containers and sizes for both retail and foodservice customers.

The biggest change between the old and new plants is the packaging lines, now automated. Robotic pick-and-place and automated case erecting and palletizing are all upgrades from the original Pasco site, Wiskerchen said.

Packaged hot, the mashed potatoes enter a spiral chiller, where they cool down to stay refrigerated all the way to the customer.

The facility stores about 4,000 pallets of finished product onsite but not for long – typically turning the warehouse about every three days, said Plant Manager, Brandon Gilliland, who started his career at the company’s Kansas City facility.

Pasco has long been nicknamed the company’s “Swiss army knife” thanks to its flexibility. With the ability to produce hotfill, baked and salad lines, the plant is the most diverse of Reser’s manufacturing sites.

“Reser’s has worked on standardizing equipment across our facilities so that we have built in redundancy,” Gilliland said.

While Pasco primarily produces mashed potatoes and macaroni & cheese refrigerated sides, the plant this summer added deli salad production lines to relieve pressure at sister plants during peak summer salad season.

Gilliland said there is still room to grow at the Pasco facility.

Growth – and innovation – remain at the forefront for Reser’s. Last year they acquired St. Clair Foods, Inc., a manufacturer of refrigerated deli salads, frozen sides and entrees, primarily for foodservice.

Wiskerchen predicted that while Pasco will remain the company’s secret weapon, it is not likely to be its largest – or newest facility – for long.

The company is currently building a new distribution center to support its Kansas facilities and recently finished a new production facility in Salem, Oregon.