Tropicana Products

Anthony T. Rossi was born in Sicily, Italy and immigrated to the United States in 1921 when he was 21. He drove a taxi, was a grocer in New York, then worked as a farmer in Virginia. Then moved to Florida in 1940 where he farmed, and was a restaurateur. His first involvement with the Florida citrus industry was creating fresh fruit gift boxes, they where sold in Macy's and Gimbels department stores. All in the city of New York.[3]

In 1947, Rossi settled in Palmetto, Florida, and began packing fruit gift boxes and jars of sectioned fruit for salads under the name Manatee River Packing Company. As the fruit segment business grew, the company moved to a larger location in East Bradenton, Florida. This is where they changed its name to Fruit Industries.[3] Fruit Industries continued to grow, even started supplying ingredients for the fresh fruit salads on the menu of New York's famed Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.[4] At the East Bradenton location, Rossi began producing frozen, concentrated orange juice as a natural extension to the fruit section business.[3]

In 1952, Rossi purchased the Grapefruit Canning Company in Bradenton.[5] The fresh fruit segments and orange juice business was profitable enough that he discontinued the production of fruit boxes.[6] He developed flash pasteurization in 1954, a process that raised the temperature of juice for a short time to preserve its taste.[3] For the first time, consumers could have the fresh taste of pure not-from-concentrate juice in a chilled package.[7] The juice, Tropicana Pure Premium, became the company's flagship product.[7]

The company developed a trademarked cartoon mascot for the brand called Tropic-Ana, a barefoot young girl carrying oranges on her head and wearing clothing that resembles a Hawaiian grass skirt and lei.[8] She appeared prominently on the juice cartons and even the train cars used to transport the juice.[9] Her image was phased out during the 1980s.[10]

Ed Price was hired as executive vice president and director in 1955 and represented the company as chairman of the Florida Citrus Commission.[11] In 1957, the company's name was changed to Tropicana Products, Inc. to reflect the growing appeal of the Tropicana brand.[3]

CSX pulling the Tropicana Juice Train across the Manatee River Bridge in Bradenton, Florida, in 2018

Tropicana purchased one million dollars worth of refrigerated trucks to deliver Pure Premium in the mid to late fifties.[5] Soon, 2,000 dairies delivered Pure Premium orange juice to the doorsteps of consumers each morning.[5] By 1958, a ship, S.S. Tropicana, delivered 1.5 million US gallons (1,200,000 imp gal; 5,700 m³) of juice to New York each week from the new base at Cape Canaveral, Florida.[3] From 1960 to 1970, Tropicana utilized piggyback trailers on flatcars to move the juice more efficiently.[3]

In 1970, Tropicana orange juice was shipped as finished goods via refrigerated boxcars in one weekly round-trip from Florida to Kearny, New Jersey. By the following year, the company was operating two 65-car unit trains a week, each carrying around 1 million US gallons (830,000 imp gal; 3,800 m³) of juice.[12] The "Great White Juice Train" (the first unit train in the food industry, consisting of 150 100-short ton insulated boxcars fabricated in the Alexandria, Virginia shops of Fruit Growers Express) commenced service on June 7, 1971, over the 1,250-mile (2,010 km) route. An additional 100 cars were soon incorporated into the fleet, and small mechanical refrigeration units were installed to keep temperatures constant on hot days. In 2004, Tropicana's rail fleet of 514 cars traveled over 35,000,000 mi (56,000,000 km) – a method that is three times more fuel-efficient than other shipping methods.

Tropicana Products, Inc. went public in 1969. The stock was first sold over the counter but gained a listing on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TOJ. In the same year, it became the first company in the citrus industry to operate its own plastic container manufacturing plant.[3]

Executive vice president Ed Price, who served two terms in the Florida Senate (1958–1966), resigned his position in 1972, but remained on the board of directors until 1983.[11]

Rossi sold Tropicana to Beatrice Foods in 1978. He then retired and was inducted into the Florida Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1987. In 1985, Tropicana debuted Tropicana Pure Premium HomeStyle orange juice, which featured added pulp.[3]

In the 1980s, Tropicana was acquired by The Seagram Company, Ltd. In the decade that followed, they introduced new juice beverage creations, including the orange line of bottled and frozen juice blends.[3]

In the early nineties under Seagram, Tropicana also began to expand distribution to global markets. They formed a partnership to process and distribute Kirin-Tropicana juices in Japan. By that time, the company was also distributing Tropicana Pure Premium in Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Argentina, Panama, and Sweden. As the 1990s continued, Tropicana further expanded internationally, entering several more Latin American countries, Hong Kong and China.[3]

Seagram Beverage Group acquired Dole Food Company's global juice business in 1995, including the Dole brands in North America, and Dole, Fruvita, Looza, and Juice Bowl juices and nectars in Europe. Dole was operated under Tropicana Dole Beverages North America and Tropicana Dole Beverages International.[3]

Logo from 2003 to 2007.

Tropicana was acquired by PepsiCo in 1998, which combined it with the Dole brand for marketing purposes.[3][13] The company has become the world's leading producer of branded fruit juices.[14] Tropicana headquarters moved to Chicago in 2003.[15]

Due to the decreased productivity of Florida's orange crop in the wake of several damaging touches of frost, Tropicana began using a blend of Florida and Brazilian oranges in 2007.[16] Citing an increased consumer interest in the origin of food products, the company announced in February 2012 that its Tropicana Pure Premium line would return to sourcing oranges only from Florida.[17] Tropicana later reverted to sourcing its oranges from both Florida and Brazil due to the Asian citrus psyllid, a microscopic insect that spreads a bacterial disease that causes citrus greening. It is estimated that the disease has killed over 75% of Florida's citrus trees.[18]

In February 2009, Tropicana switched the design on all cartons sold in the United States to a new image created by the Arnell Group. The new image showed the actual orange juice and redesigned the cap to look like the outside of an orange. After less than two months and a 20% drop in sales, Tropicana switched back to its original design of an orange skewered by a drinking straw.[19]

In early 2010, Tropicana reduced the size of its traditional 64 US fl oz (66.61 imp fl oz; 1.89 L) carton to 59 US fl oz (61.41 imp fl oz; 1.74 L) in the U.S. market and maintained the original price. This change represented a 7.8% price-per-ounce increase for consumers.[20]

In 2018, Tropicana again reduced the size of its containers, from 59 US fl oz (61.41 imp fl oz; 1.74 L) to 52 US fl oz (54.12 imp fl oz; 1.54 L).,[21] due to more shortages and high demand.

On August 3, 2021, PepsiCo announced that they would sell a majority stake in Tropicana, Naked Juice, and other juice brands to PAI Partners for $3.3 billion, to concentrate on their healthy snack foods and zero-calorie beverages. They would retain a 39% stake in the new joint-venture company and have exclusive distribution rights to the brands in the USA.[22]