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 Flat version of the Tropicana logo as of 2007 | |
| Formerly | Tropicana Products, Inc. (until 2021) |
|---|---|
| Company type | Private |
| Founded | 1947; 78 years ago (1947) |
| Founder | Anthony T. Rossi |
| Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois,United States |
| Products | Fruit juice |
| Parent | PAI Partners (61%) PepsiCo (39%)[1] |
| Website | tropicana.com |
Tropicana Brands Group (/ˌtrɒpɪˈkænə/TROP-ih-KAN-ə) is an American fruit-based beverage company. It was founded in 1947 byAnthony T. Rossi inBradenton, Florida. Between 1998 and 2021 it was a subsidiary ofPepsiCo. In August 2021, 61% of Tropicana was sold along with the rest of PepsiCo's juice brand portfolio for $3.3 billion to French investment fundPAI Partners.[2] PepsiCo retained the remaining 39% of the companies ownership.
Tropicana traces its roots toAnthony T. Rossi, a native ofSicily, Italy, who immigrated to theUnited States in 1921 when he was 21. He drove a taxi, was a grocer inNew York, then worked as a farmer inVirginia. He then moved toFlorida in 1940, where he farmed, and was a restaurateur. His first involvement with theFloridacitrus industry was creating fresh fruit gift boxes. These were sold inMacy's andGimbels department stores, all in the city ofNew York.[3]
In 1947, Rossi settled inPalmetto, 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 inEast Bradenton, Florida, and 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 famedWaldorf-Astoria Hotel.[4] Rossi began producing frozen concentrated orange juice at the East Bradenton location as a natural extension of 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 developedflash pasteurization in 1954, a preservation process that raised the temperature of juice for a short time to only minimally affect its taste.[3] It provided an alternative to the frozen product, which both heated and concentrated the juice.[7] Tropicana Pure Premium chilled juice became the company's flagship product.[7]
The company developed a trademarked cartoonmascot for the brand called Tropic-Ana, abarefoot young girl carrying oranges on her head and wearing clothing that resembles a Hawaiiangrass skirt andlei.[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]
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 atCape 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 viarefrigeratedboxcars in one weekly round-trip from Florida toKearny, 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 theAlexandria, Virginia shops ofFruit 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.[citation needed]
Tropicana Products, Inc. went public in 1969. The stock was first sold over the counter but gained a listing on theNew 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 toBeatrice Foods in 1978. He then retired and was inducted into theFlorida 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 byThe Seagram Company, Ltd. In the decade that followed, it 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 inJapan. By that time, the company was also distributing Tropicana Pure Premium inCanada, theUnited Kingdom,Ireland,France,Germany,Argentina,Panama, andSweden. As the 1990s continued, Tropicana further expanded internationally, entering several moreLatin American countries,Hong Kong andChina.[3]
Seagram Beverage Group acquiredDole 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]
Tropicana was acquired byPepsiCo 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 andBrazilian 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 theAsian citrus psyllid, a microscopic insect that spreads a bacterial disease that causescitrus 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 theArnell Group. The new packaging featured an image of a stemmed glass of orange juice, redesigned the cap to look like the outside of an orange, and rotated the name to be read vertically. After two months of negative consumer reaction 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 toPAI 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]
In November 2024, Tropicana announced they were redesigning its packaging, reducing the size of its orange juice containers. The company will replace the 52-ounce carafe with a narrower 46-ounce bottle. This change comes amid declining orange juice consumption in the United States.[23]
In February 2025, Tropicana reported that it was in financial distress and warned it may file forChapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company blamed several factors as part of its struggles, such as declining sales, inflation, changes in Americans' diets, increased competition, and natural disasters occurring in Florida and Brazil due to climate change. The latter reason, in particular, caused production to be shedded by over 73% since 2015.[24]
In 2008, Tropicana started the "Rescue Rainforest" campaign in the U.S. in collaboration with the charityCool Earth.[25] People could buy special promotional packs of Tropicana and enter the pack's code online. For each code entered, 100 square feet (9.3 m2) of rainforest would be saved.[26] The project was based in theAshaninka corridor in Peru, which lies in an arc of deforestation. As of June 2009, over 47,000,000 square feet (4,400,000 m2; 4.4 km2; 1.7 sq mi) had been saved.[27]
Tropicana has also been encouraging carton recycling and supporting theSustainable Forestry Initiative.[28]
Pepsi produced fruit-flavored soft drinks called Tropicana Twister Soda in 2005.[29]
This soft drink line has largely replacedPepsi'sSlice line. Tropicana also has Fruit Snacks, and in the United Kingdom makessmoothies.[30]
Trop50, introduced by Tropicana in 2009, is orange juice with 50% less sugar and calories, a reduction achieved by dilution with 50% water and the addition ofReb A orPureVia, chemically altered versions of theStevia plant.[31] Trop50 is available in several varieties including Farmstand Apple, Pomegranate Blueberry, Pineapple Mango, Orange, Lemonade, and Raspberry Lemonade.[32]
A number of their juice products designed for 'extended shelf life' are colored with 'carmine', an extract ofcochineal beetles.[33]
In 2010, the company announced a limited release ofTropolis, a liquid fruit snack drink, for January 2011.[34]
In March 2011, theIRI named Trop50 as one of the "Top 10 Food and Beverage Brands in 2010".[35]
Apple juice marketed under the Tropicana Brand byPepsiCanada uses Canadian apples and has a darker shade and more authentic color than the pale transparent juice marketed in the USA.[citation needed]
In celebration of National Orange Juice Day on May 4, 2022, Tropicana releasedTropicana Crunch, a limited-edition cereal intended to be eaten with orange juice. Composed primarily ofoats,wheat,brown sugar,rice,almonds, andhoney.[36][37]
Tropicana holds sponsorship toTropicana Field inSt. Petersburg, Florida, the home to thebaseball teamTampa Bay Rays. The name of theBradenton Juice baseball team of theSouth Coast League was indicative of Tropicana's headquarters which were located inBradenton, Florida.[citation needed]
The headquarters of Tropicana Products are inChicago, Illinois.PepsiCo, the parent company of Tropicana, planned to begin moving Tropicana employees into its existing Chicago facility in the first quarter of 2004. PepsiCo moved Tropicana into Chicago to consolidate their juice brands into one Chicago-based unit.[38]
Tropicana Products was headquartered in the four-story Rossi Office Building inBradenton, Florida until 2004. In 2004, the building, which was completed in 2002, was sold for $20 million. In 2007, it was sold toBealls of Florida.[39] The 149,000 square foot building was renamed the E. R. Beall Center.[40]
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