Our History
Erbacher’s Fruit and Vegetables has been a family owned and operated business for over 70 years. It all began in 1945 when Eric and Thelma Erbacher purchased a farm at Diddillibah where they lived in an old house and starting farming on their land.
Eric and Thelma were both exceptional farmers. They grew beans, pineapples, bananas and many other small crops. They also started a poultry farm business selling eggs and chickens on their 35 acres of land. They would set up a stall under their family home which is now the carpark at Erbacher’s, selling their own grown produce together with eggs and chickens.
The more Eric grew on his farm the busier the stall got and this inspired him to build a shop and start a small business. He turned an old chicken shed into a shop and this is where the business remains today. To service the growing needs of the community, Eric would drive down to the Rocklea Markets in Brisbane to source additional fresh produce for the customers. Eric and Thelma were tireless and hard-working farmers. Most days they would work from dawn until dark. In addition to their farming duties, Eric and Thelma welcomed thirteen children into their family.
As soon as the children were old enough they would help with domestic chores and farming duties. Family meant everything to Eric and Thelma. Whether it was helping on the farm, helping around the home or helping raise the younger children, they all worked together as a family. After years of helping their parents with farming duties Cyril and Peter, the second and third eldest brothers, began to spend more and more time working on both the farm and in the shop. A few years down the track their three younger brothers Leo, Kevin and Stephen joined what had grown into a successful small family business.
With the help of their wives to run the shop, the boys were able to be out farming and sourcing the best produce for our customers from the Rocklea Markets and local growers. Another few years down the track, business was still excelling, which prompted us to employ more staff including a full-time farmer manager and farm hands which allowed the five brothers to focus more on managing the shop.
Four of the five brothers had children. Most of the third-generation Erbacher children would come to work with their parents and play in a cubby house which was built for them. From about the age of five, the children would help with some work. Collecting eggs and taking loose shells off onions by hand is a couple of jobs they remember doing.
Peter’s two sons Kelvin and Colin began working full time at Erbacher’s in their mid-teens. In October 2006, Kelvin and Colin purchased Leo’s share of the business. Today, Erbacher’s Fruit and Vegetables is still entirely family owned and operated with 21 family members on board and this includes fourth generation family members. We are also very fortunate to have a wonderful group of staff who help us run our business on a daily basis. They all work hard to keep our shelves stocked, serve our customers at the checkouts and grow produce on the farm.
We pride ourselves in providing the freshest and best quality produce we can for our customers, as well as supporting our local farmers and growers on the Sunshine Coast. We grow as much of our own produce as we can and source from local growers and suppliers. The rest of the produce is sourced from the Rocklea Markets in Brisbane. The Erbacher family have put in many years of hard work and long days to achieve the local family business that we are today. We believe that our most successful marketing over the years has been word of mouth from our customers. We appreciate that without our customers we wouldn’t be here today.
Our high-quality produce and exceptional customer service are the most important things to us and we believe you only get out what you put in. We all put in a lot of hours to ensure that the business Eric and Thelma started all those years ago keeps running. We are all very proud of our history and we have a passion to see what started off as a small fruit stall remains part of the community and is passed down the generations