Tropicana Beverage Group history

In 1949 the company moved to Bradenton and changed its name to Fruit Industries, Inc.

In 1952, with growth of the orange juice business in mind, Rossi purchased the Grapefruit Canning Company in Bradenton.

He developed flash pasteurization in 1954, a process that rapidly raised the temperature of juice for a short time to preserve its fresh taste.

Ed Price was hired as executive vice president and director in 1955 and represented the company as chairman of the Florida Citrus Commission.

In 1957 he changed the name of the company to Tropicana Products, Inc. to reflect the increasing popularity of the brand.

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The Tropicana made its final orange juice voyage in 1961, and the company began relying exclusively on truck and rail transport.

The glass plant opened in 1964.

Meantime, Tropicana in 1966 began selling its not-from-concentrate Florida orange juice overseas for the first time, shipping 14,000 cases of juice in glass bottles to France.

In 1970, Tropicana orange juice was shipped as finished goods via refrigerated boxcars in one weekly round-trip from Florida to Kearny, New Jersey.

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.

Continuing its moves to lessen its dependence on outside suppliers, Tropicana opened a box plant in 1972 and began making its own corrugated boxes.

By 1973, in fact, revenues had reached $121.2 million, while net income grew nearly sixfold, to $10 million.

The Tropicana-Minute Maid rivalry heated up further in 1975 when the former reentered the market for frozen concentrate.

Tropicana was growing rapidly, with sales increasing 19 percent each year on average, reaching $244.6 million in 1977.

Purchased by Beatrice in 1978

Following Beatrice's appeal, the FTC overturned the judge's ruling in 1983, finding that the acquisition was not illegal.

Meanwhile the door to the Tropicana president's office became a revolving one, as Walrack resigned in June 1984 for "personal reasons," and his replacement—Wesley M. Thompson, who had been hired away from a Coca-Cola executive marketing position—did the same only nine months later.

Stephen J. Volk, who had previously worked at PepsiCo, was named president in March 1985.

In April 1986 Beatrice was taken private through a $6.2 billion, highly leveraged buyout led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR). Over the next two years, Beatrice was stripped of much of its assets to pay down debt.

He then retired and was inducted into the Florida Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1987.

Sold to Seagram in 1988

Despite the lawsuit, by 1990 Minute Maid had 11.7 percent of the not-from-concentrate, ready-to-serve orange juice market.

Also in 1991 a joint venture between Tropicana and Kirin Brewery Company, Limited of Japan began importing and marketing orange juice in that country.

In February 1992 William Pietersen, president of the Seagram Beverage Group, was named president of Tropicana as well.

In 1993 Tropicana introduced Grovestand orange juice, a ready-to-serve product that was touted to have the consistency and taste of fresh-squeezed juice.

That year Tropicana Pure Premium was launched in Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and France; Germany, Argentina, and Panama were added to Pure Premium's market area in 1994.

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.

Keefe, Robert, "Seagram's Tropicana Unit a Marketing and Fruit-Juice Powerhouse," Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News , October 29, 1996.

While Tropicana was expanding rapidly into a company with 1997 worldwide sales of $1.93 billion, Seagram was increasing its involvement in the entertainment industry.

In November 1998 the company announced that it had agreed to license the Tropicana brand name to Greene River Marketing, Inc. of Vero Beach, Florida, for use on ruby red fresh grapefruit.

In September 1999 Rodkin was promoted to CEO of Pepsi-Cola North America.

In early 2000 Tropicana announced that it would increase its fleet of refrigerated railcars to more than 400, and that their orange color would gradually be phased out in favor of a return to the original white for the sake of cooling efficiency.

Tropicana reached another milestone in 2001 when it squeezed its 300 billionth orange into juice.

Rolled out nationally in March 2002 were Tropicana Smoothies, touted as delicious and nutritious combinations of juice and yogurt, packaged in convenient single-serving resealable plastic bottles.

In December 2003, just prior to this launch, PepsiCo shocked the community of Bradenton with the announcement that the headquarters of Tropicana Products would be shifted to Chicago, the base for PepsiCo Beverages & Foods North America.

Marsteller, Duane, "Tropicana Products to Expand Its Line of Lighter Juices," Bradenton (Fla.) Herald , May 14, 2004.

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.

In February 2009, Tropicana switched the design on all cartons sold in the United States to a new image created by the Arnell Group.

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 United States market, and maintained the original price.

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.

In 2018, Tropicana reduced the size again of its container 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).