Florida's Natural Growers is an

agricultural cooperative An agricultural cooperative, also known as a farmers' co-op, is a producer cooperative in which farmers pool their resources in certain areas of activities. A broad typology of agricultural cooperatives distinguishes between agricultural servic ...

based in

Lake Wales, Florida Lake Wales is a city in Polk County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Lakeland-Winter Haven, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 16,361 at the 2020 census. History Early history A survey by W.A. Williams and J. ...

. It is currently owned by over 1,100 grower members. It was the only national

orange juice Orange juice is a liquid extract of the orange (fruit), orange tree fruit, produced by squeezing or reaming oranges. It comes in several different varieties, including blood orange, navel oranges, valencia orange, clementine, and tangerine. As ...

maker that used only US-grown fruit (grown by its cooperative members in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

) in its products; however, this policy changed starting in May 2022. After that time, Florida's Natural products included concentrated orange juice from Mexico.

History

Florida's Natural Growers was founded in 1933 as Florida Citrus Canners Cooperative. Its initial operations included canning juice and grapefruit sections for its members, and in 1938 began extracting juice with automated machines. During World War II, the company produced concentrated orange juice for the military; after the war, 80% of the juice the company produced was in frozen concentrate form to meet consumer demand for the relatively new, convenient form. In the 1960s, consumer demand shifted to ready-to-drink orange juice, and frozen concentrate sales declined while demand for chilled juices increased. In 1969, the cooperative took the name Citrus World and adopted the current name, Florida's Natural Growers, in 1998. It is currently composed of 12 representatives of 14 citrus cooperatives: Waverly Growers Cooperative, Lake Placid Cooperative, Ben Hill Griffin Inc., Haines City Citrus Growers Association, Orange Growers Marketing Association, Lake Wales Citrus Growers Association, Hunt Brothers Cooperative, Citrus Marketing Services Inc, Peace River Packing Company, Dundee Citrus Growers Association, Winter Haven Citrus Growers Association, and Umatilla Citrus Growers Association, Southern Gardens Citrus Growers, and Lykes. In 2001, the company opened the "Grove House", a visitor's center across the street from its Lake Wales, Florida processing plant. The Grove House is open Monday through Friday 10 am to 5 pm, and is closed from Memorial Day through the last day of September.

Products and marketing

Florida's Natural produces

citrus ''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the family Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as oranges, mandarins, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and limes. ''Citrus'' is nativ ...

juices (mainly

and lemonades) under the Florida's Natural, Coral Reef Juice Co. and

Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by the Walt Disney Company. Donald is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit, sailor shirt and cap with ...

brand names. The company's primary marketing strategy is to differentiate itself from main competitors Simply Orange,

Minute Maid Minute Maid is an American brand of drink, beverages, usually associated with lemonade or orange juice, but which now extends to soft drinks of different kinds, including Hi-C. Minute Maid is sold under the Cappy (juice), Cappy brand in Central E ...

and Tropicana. It does this by emphasizing its cooperative organization ("Florida's Natural. Together, from Tree to Table"). By comparison, Simply Orange and Minute Maid are both owned by

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

, while Tropicana is owned in a joint venture by French private equity firm,

PAI Partners PAI Partners is a French private equity firm based in Paris. It is one of the oldest firms in the sector, with its origins dating back to Paribas Affaires Industrielles, historically the principal investment arm of Paribas, which started opera ...

with

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase, New York, Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the f ...

keeping a 39% non-controlling stake. As a citrus cooperative, Florida's Natural uses citrus grown by its cooperative members in Central and South Florida in its products (as well as concentrated citrus juice from Mexico), and seeks to provide the maximum return for fruit to its members, supporting these citrus growers and their families.

References

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External links

Florida's NaturalDisney-branded juice drinks
1933 establishments in Florida Juice brands Agricultural marketing cooperatives Companies based in Polk County, Florida Lake Wales, Florida Organizations established in 1933 Florida culture American brands Agricultural cooperatives in the United States Citrus industry in Florida Cooperatives based in Florida

History

Products and marketing

See also

References

External links