Tropicana Products

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Tropicana Products, is an American based company, and was founded in 1947 by Anthony T. Rossi in Bradenton, Florida, USA. Since 1998, it has been owned by PepsiCo, Inc.

[edit] History

[edit] Anthony T. Rossi

Anthony T. Rossi (1900–1993) was born in Italy on the island of Sicily. He had the equivalent of a high school education, and immigrated to the United States when he was 21 years old. He drove a taxicab, was a grocer in New York, farmed in Virginia and then moved to Florida in 1940 where he farmed and was a restaurateur. His first involvement with the Florida citrus industry was fresh fruit gift boxes sold by Macy's and Gimbel's department stores in New York City, New York. ^[1].

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 and changed its name to Fruit Industries.^[1] The ingredients for the fresh fruit salads on the menu of New York’s famed Waldorf-Astoria Hotel were supplied by Fruit Industries.^[2] At the east Bradenton location, Rossi began producing frozen concentrate orange juice as a natural extension of the fruit section business.^[1]

[edit] Evolution of Tropicana Pure Premium

In 1952, with growth of the orange juice business in mind, Rossi purchased the Grapefruit Canning Company in Bradenton. ^[3] The fresh fruit segments and orange juice business were so successful that he discontinued production of fruit boxes.^[4] He developed flash pasteurization in 1954, a process that rapidly raised the temperature of juice for a short time to preserve its fresh taste.^[1] For the first time, consumers could have the fresh taste of pure not-from-concentrate juice in a ready to serve chilled package.^[5] The juice, Tropicana Pure Premium, became the company’s flagship product.^[5] In 1957, the company’s name was changed to Tropicana Products, Inc. to reflect the growing appeal of the Tropicana brand.^[1]

[edit] Shipping innovations

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Tropicana purchased one million dollars worth of refrigerated trucks to deliver Pure Premium.^[3] Soon, 2,000 dairies delivered Pure Premium orange juice to the doorsteps of consumers each morning.^[3] By 1958, a ship, S.S. Tropicana, was taking 1.5 million gallons of juice to New York each week from new base at Cape Canaveral, Florida.^[1] From 1960 to 1970, Tropicana utilized TOFC (trailers on flatbed cars) to move the juice more efficiently.^[1]

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 gallons of juice. The "Great White Juice Train" (the first unit train in the food industry, consisting of 150 100-ton insulated boxcars fabricated in the Alexandria, Virginia shops of Fruit Growers Express) commenced service on June 7, 1971 over the 1,250-mile (2,012-kilometer) 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 million miles – a method that is three times more fuel efficient than other shipping methods.

In the 21st century, the Tropicana-CSX Juice Trains have been the focus of efficiency studies and have received awards. They are considered good examples^[who?] of how modern rail transportation can compete successfully with trucking and other modes to carry perishable products.

[edit] Going Public and Expansion: 1969-1997

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.^[1]

Rossi sold Tropicana to Beatrice Foods in 1978. He then retired, and was inducted into the Florida Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1987. Under Beatrice, Tropicana had the financial resources to develop more products. In 1985, Tropicana debuted Tropicana Pure Premium HomeStyle orange juice, which featured added pulp.^[1]

In the 1960’s, Tropicana made history by being the first company to sell bottled Florida orange juice overseas. The company received its first order for 14,000 cases of orange juice at a European food industry trade fair in 1965, and France was the first country outside of North America to enjoy Tropicana products.^[1]

Beatrice was acquired by investment company Kohlberg Kravis Roberts in 1986, and Tropicana was sold to The Seagram Company, Ltd.. In the decade that followed, they introduced new juice beverage creations, including the Twister line of bottled and frozen juice blends.^[1]

In the early nineties under Seagram, Tropicana also began to expand distribution to global markets. They formed a partnership with Kirin 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.^[1]

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. ^[1]

Tropicana Orange Juice.

[edit] Sold to PepsiCo and 21st Century: 1998-Current

Tropicana was acquired by PepsiCo in 1998, which combined it with the Dole brand for marketing purposes.^[1] It has become the world’s leading producer of branded fruit juices. ^[6]

Citing the decreased productivity of Florida's orange crop after recent hurricanes, Tropicana now uses Brazilian oranges in some of its juice.^[7]

[edit] Redesign

In February 2009, Tropicana switched the design on all its cartons to a new image created by the Arnell Group. The new image showed the actual orange juice and redesigned the cap to be the outside of the orange. After less than 2 months and a 20% drop in sales, Tropicana switched back to its original design (the orange skewered by the drinking straw) but kept the redesigned cap.^[8]

[edit] Not-for-Profit Affiliations

In 2008 Tropicana joined forces with charity Cool earth and started the 'Rescue Rainforest' campaign in the U.S.^[9] People could buy special promotional packs of Tropicana and enter the pack's code online. For each code entered, 100 square feet of rainforest could be saved.^[10] The project is based in the Ashaninka corridor in Peru, which lies in an arc of deforestation. As of June 2009, over 47,000,000 square feet had been saved. ^[11]

Along with launching the Rescue Rainforest initiative, Tropicana has been trying to reduce their carbon footprint by encouraging carton recycling and supporting the Sustainable Forestry Initiative.^[12]

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[edit] Other Products

The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.

Pepsi produces fruit flavored soft drinks called Tropicana Twister Soda.^[13]

This soft drink line largely replaced Pepsi's Slice soft drinks. Tropicana also has Fruit Snacks, and in the United Kingdom makes smoothies.^[14]

[edit] Naming Rights

Tropicana holds sponsorship to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, the home to the baseball team Tampa Bay Rays. The name of the Bradenton Juice baseball team of the South Coast League is loosely related to Tropicana.

[edit] See also

• Juice Train

[edit] External links

• Tropicana's Official Web Site
• Tropicana's Official Belgian Web Site
• Tropicana's Official British Web Site
• Tropicana page on PepsiCo UK & Ireland
• Tropicana Smoothies page on PepsiCo UK & Ireland
• Tropicana Rescue Rainforest
• Cool Earth
• Tropicana's Official Canadian Web Site
• Tropicana's Official Spanish Web Site
• Tropicana's Official Swiss Web Site
• Tropicana Vitaduo France
• CSX Transportation Official Web Site
• Florida East Coast Railway Official Web Site

[edit] Sources

• Rossi's bio at the Florida Agriculture Hall of Fame class of 1987
• Sanna Barlow Rossi. (1986) Anthony T. Rossi, Christian and Entrepreneur: The Story of the Founder of Tropicana. InterVarsity Press. ISBN 0-8308-4999-8

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n} "Tropicana Products, Inc."
2. ^ "Anthony Rossi, 92, Tropicana Founder And Industry Leader", Jan. 27, 1993
3. ^ ^{a b c} Nickel, K., Stout, M. & Snyder, L. (2003). A History of Tropicana. Tropicana Products, Inc.
4. ^ Bonocore, Joseph J: ""Raised Italian-American". Page 167. iUniverse, 2005. Google Book Search. Retrieved on May 26, 2009.
5. ^ ^{a b} "Tropicana North America"
6. ^ "Zoom Info" Retrieved on May 29, 2009.
7. ^ "With Fla. Crop Down, Brazilian OJ Flows In", May 5, 2007
8. ^ "3 Minute Ad Age", Feb. 26, 2009
9. ^ http://newsroom.mbooth.com/Tropicana/CoolEarth-NewsRelease.html
10. ^ http://world-wire.com/news/0904220005.html
11. ^ http://www.tropicanarainforest.com/p/handler?target=general&action=getHome&sid=3610
12. ^ http://www.tropicanarainforest.com/p/handler?target=general&action=displayPage&sid=3610&pageId=271&version=c
13. ^ Pepsi Product Information, Retrieved 05-28-2009
14. ^ "PepsiCo plots smoothie launch to rival Innocent", 01-31-2008, Retrieved 05-28-2009