How a Family Juice Company Went from Farmers Market to Costco
Langer’s Juice started with a simple idea: make juice from real fruit, no shortcuts. Bruce Langer’s dad began selling fresh-squeezed carrot juice at a farmers market in San Diego in the 1960s. Bruce grew up in the business, learning how to taste, bottle, sell, and scale. Today, Langer’s is in every major grocery chain and sells across the U.S. and overseas. But they’ve stayed close to their roots.
In this Brand Study, Bruce shares how Langer’s grew from a family-run operation to a national juice brand without losing its values. The takeaways? Stay close to the product. Solve problems with operations. And listen more than you talk.
It Started with Carrot Juice
Bruce’s father started the company with a juicer and a mission, real juice from real ingredients. That philosophy shaped everything that followed. As the business grew, Bruce helped transition from glass bottles to more affordable and scalable PET plastic. Most grocery buyers rejected the change. But one buyer at Ralph’s gave it a shot. That decision helped Langer’s become the top-selling apple juice in Southern California. The momentum from that one placement gave them the confidence to expand nationally.
Hands-On, Even at Scale
Langer’s now operates three production facilities and a 600-acre farm in Bakersfield. That farm grows organic pomegranates and apples, which are pressed and bottled in-house. It’s not just farming, it’s a vertically integrated supply chain. They even capture the water used in evaporation and reuse it to irrigate crops.
The attention to quality hasn’t changed. Bruce and the leadership team still taste every product before it goes out. It’s a level of detail most brands can’t maintain, but for Langer’s, it’s the standard. That approach has led to major successes, like their tropical blend line, which now accounts for a third of sales. Recent launches include immune-boosting juices, aguas frescas, and a craft cola made with real cane sugar.
Sustainability That Makes Business Sense
Being sustainable is baked into how Langer’s operates. They were ahead of the curve in eliminating high-fructose corn syrup and switching to real sugar. That decision came at a higher cost but built long-term trust with customers.
Their innovations go beyond ingredients. At the farm, they use peach pits instead of concrete to build roads, reducing the use of carbon-heavy materials. In their bottling plants, they’ve invested in lightweight bottle technology to reduce plastic usage. These operational decisions aren’t flashy but they add up to real impact.
In Stores, Online, and Everywhere in Between
You’ll find Langer’s in just about every grocery chain, Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons, Winco, and they’re growing fast on digital platforms like Amazon, TikTok Shop, and Walmart Marketplace. In-store, their strategy is built around fair pricing. Two-for deals are common because it mirrors how people actually buy juice.
Online, they take a different approach. Search keywords, product reviews, and subscribe-and-save offers are the tools of the trade. Interestingly, flavors perform differently depending on the channel. Ginger sells online, while blood orange moves best on shelves. That insight shapes how they position SKUs across platforms.
Always Experimenting, Always Listening
Langer’s isn’t afraid to try new things. Not every idea lands, like their mango jalapeño lime juice, which tested well internally but didn’t sell at retail. Still, those experiments are part of the process.
They’re constantly expanding into new categories: apple butter, vegan honey, fruit popsicles. Most recently, they’ve been developing a hemp-based smoothie using whole-plant ingredients grown on their farm. These smoothies are aimed at the perimeter of the store, produce and dairy, where many health-conscious shoppers spend their time.
Bruce credits much of their success to one principle: listen. When two unrelated people give the same feedback, the team pays attention. That mindset keeps them moving forward without chasing every trend
