Tropicana Products
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tropicana Products is an American company based in Bradenton, Florida, USA, which is one of the world's largest producers and marketers of orange juice. Founded in 1947 by Anthony T. Rossi, an Italian immigrant, it has grown to over 8,000 employees in 2004, and operates several Juice Trains bringing its products to market throughout the United States. It has been owned by PepsiCo, Inc. since 1998.
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[edit] History
[edit] Anthony T. Rossi
Anthony Talamo Rossi (1900–1993) was born in Italy on the island of Sicily. He had the equivalent of a high school education. He immigrated to the United States when he was 21 years old and educated himself to the point that he became an expert mathematician and mechanical engineer. He drove a taxicab, was a chauffeur for a railroad executive, and ran a small grocery store. His first involvement with the Florida citrus industry was gift boxes sold by Macy's and Gimbel's department stores in New York City.
In 1947, Rossi purchased a small orange juice company in western Florida and thus began Tropicana. Tropicana's early distribution of fresh orange juice mostly by way of hand-delivered juice jars to nearby homes. Demand grew, especially in New York City where Rossi had an established reputation from his citrus fruit gift boxes.
[edit] New pasteurization process: 1954
In 1954, he invented a pasteurization process to aseptically pack pure chilled juice in glass bottles, allowing it to be shipped and stored without refrigeration. He also devised a method of freezing pure whole citrus juice in 20-gallon blocks for storage and shipping.
[edit] Shipping innovations: S.S. Tropicana, "Juice Train"
By 1957, 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. About ten years later, even more capacity was arranged with an innovative unit railroad train.
In 1970, Tropicana orange juice was shipped in bulk via insulated boxcars in one weekly round-trip from Florida to Kearny, New Jersey. By the following year, the company was operating two 60-car unit trains a week, each carrying around 1 million gallons of juice. On June 7, 1971 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 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. Tropicana saved $40 million in fuel costs alone during the first ten years in operation.
Starting out on the Seaboard Coast Line (SCL) railroad south of Tampa, Florida, the original used former Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SAL) and Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL) tracks. It crossed over to the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac (RF&P) in Richmond, Virginia at pier 5 of the famous concrete James River Bridge. At Potomac Yard in Alexandria, Virginia, Penn Central Transportation (PC) took over and operated it under the former Pennsylvania Railroad's railway electrification system wires with electric locomotives most of the way to Kearny. Within a short time, additional weekly trips were required to meet growing demand.
[edit] Corporate, shipping changes 1978-2004
Rossi sold Tropicana to Beatrice Foods in 1978, and retired. He was inducted into to the Florida Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1987. Beatrice was broken up starting in 1986, when the Tropicana operation was sold to Seagram's. In 1998, it was acquired by PepsiCo, which combined it with the Dole brand for marketing purposes. It has become the world's leading producer of branded fruit juices.
In 1976, Conrail (CR) took over from ill-fated Penn Central, with electrification discontinued in 1981. SCL became part of CSX Corporation in 1980, under which it was merged into first Seaboard System Railroad and then CSX Transportation, which by 1991 also included RF&P. In 1997, a second Juice Train began serving Cincinnati, Ohio. When CSX acquired part of Conrail in 1999, an all-CSX train began traveling to a new larger facility in Jersey City, New Jersey. Rolling stock has also changed, including orange, white, and blue cars, some with innovative refrigeration. Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) is now carrying Tropicana cars from a second processing facility in eastern Florida. A reliable and economically viable transport mode, the Juice Train(s) are also a powerful mode of advertising, running ten trips each week to Jersey City and Cincinnati. Additional shipments with specially-equipped refrigerated cars now travel 3,000 miles by rail to California.
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 of how modern rail transportation can compete successfully with trucking and other modes to carry perishable products.
[edit] Functional Fruit Juices
Recently Tropicana released a range of 'functional fruit juices' targeted at the health conscientious consumer. These fruit juice drinks in the Essentials range include juices with added multivitamins, fiber, calcium as well as light orange juice beverage with half of the calories and sugar of regular orange juice.
[edit] Soft Drinks
Tropicana makes fruit flavored soft drinks called Tropicana Tw!ster Soda.
- Orange
- Grape
- Strawberry
- Citrus
- Lemon
[edit] Other Products
Tropicana also manufactures the following fruits:
- Oranges
- Grapefruits
[edit] Naming Rights
Tropicana holds sponsorship to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, the home to the baseball team Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The name of the Bradenton Juice baseball team of the South Coast League is loosely related to Tropicana.
[edit] References
- Sanna Barlow Rossi. (1986) Anthony T. Rossi, Christian and Entrepreneur: The Story of the Founder of Tropicana. InterVarsity Press. ISBN 0-8308-4999-8
- Rossi's bio at the Florida Agriculture Hall of Fame class of 1987
