Sunkist Growers, Incorporated facts for kids
Sunkist headquarters in Valencia
|
|
| Agricultural marketing cooperative | |
| Industry | Agriculture |
| Founded | 1893 in Claremont, California |
| Founder | P.J. Dreher and Edward L. Dreher |
| Headquarters | , |
|
Area served
|
California and Arizona |
| Products | Citrus |
Sunkist Growers, Incorporated is a group of over 1,000 citrus farmers from California and Arizona. They work together as a cooperative, which means they own and run the company together. Sunkist's main office is in Valencia, California.
Sunkist is the biggest company in the United States that ships fresh fruits and vegetables. It also handles many different ways to process and sell citrus fruits around the world.
Contents
History of Sunkist
In the late 1800s, citrus farmers in California faced challenges. They decided to team up to sell their fruits. By working together, they could get better prices for their crops. This also helped them share the risks of farming.
In 1893, a difficult economic time made farmers want to work together even more. That year, P.J. Dreher and his son, Edward L. Dreher, started the Southern California Fruit Exchange in Claremont, California. Edward L. Dreher is known as the "father of the California citrus industry."
At first, the exchange only helped orange growers. But in 1896, lemon growers joined too. Farmers from several counties in California became members. By 1905, the group had grown to 5,000 members. They represented almost half of all citrus farmers in California. Because of this growth, they changed their name to the California Fruit Growers Exchange.
Between 1927 and 1939, this exchange sold more than 75% of all California citrus. In 1952, the company changed its name one last time to Sunkist Growers, Inc.
How Sunkist Works
Sunkist is organized into three levels: local, district, and central groups.
- Individual farmers belong to their local group.
- Local groups are part of a district group.
- District groups are part of the central Sunkist organization.
The main goal of this cooperative is to make it easy to harvest, sort, pack, and ship fruit from many different farmers. This way, the fruit can be sent across the United States to meet demand.
Each level of Sunkist has a special job:
- Local groups help farmers harvest their fruit. They also clean, sort, and pack the fruit. These groups combine the fruit from different farmers and then share the profits back with them.
- District groups are in charge of selling the fruit for their local packing units. They help set prices and decide where to sell the fruit. They use the sales offices and systems provided by the central Sunkist group.
- Central Sunkist brings everyone together. It provides research and advice to the local and district groups. It has departments for managing money and for creating advertisements. The central group also supports scientific research on citrus fruits.
Over the years, Sunkist has added more activities. In 1907, they started the Fruit Growers Supply Company. This company helped farmers get things they needed, like tools and fertilizers, at lower prices. Sunkist also created a company to find uses for parts of the fruit that weren't sold fresh. This led to products like citric acid and orange oil.
The Sunkist Brand and Advertising
In its early years, California farmers were growing too much fruit. By 1907, they were producing five times more oranges than 15 years before. To solve this, Sunkist decided to try something new: a big advertising campaign. This was one of the first times a company advertised a fresh food product on a large scale.
In March 1907, Sunkist promoted oranges in Iowa. They said oranges were "healthy" and "summery." This led to a 50% increase in orange sales in that state! This campaign also launched the "Sunkist" brand name. The advertising company came up with "Sunkist" because it sounded like "sun-kissed" and was easy to remember.
To make sure people knew they were buying real Sunkist oranges, the company wrapped its oranges in paper with the Sunkist name. In 1909, Sunkist started a special offer. If you mailed in twelve Sunkist wrappers, you could get a free Sunkist-branded spoon. One million spoons were given away in the first year! This helped people remember the brand and encouraged stores to display Sunkist oranges in their original wrappers. By 1910, Sunkist was buying more cutlery than anyone else in the world!
Sunkist kept investing a lot in advertising. They advertised in magazines, on the radio, on billboards, and even on school materials. Their message was simple: oranges were not just for Christmas. They wanted people to believe oranges were important for good health and to eat one every day.
.jpg)
Sunkist also promoted fresh-squeezed orange juice and lemonade. They said these were better than "artificial" drinks like Coca-Cola. By the mid-1930s, one out of every five Sunkist oranges was being used for juice. Sunkist juice became the second most popular drink at soda fountains, right after Coca-Cola.
Thanks to these efforts, Americans were eating about 40 oranges per person each year by 1914. This was an 80% increase from 1885!
In 1915, Sunkist started strongly promoting lemons. They showed how lemons could be used in many ways, like for hair rinses, in tea, in pie, and as a food garnish. This helped Sunkist compete with lemons imported from Italy. By 1924, California lemons made up 90% of the American lemon market.
Sunkist Today
In 2023, Sunkist celebrated its 130th anniversary. It is the longest-running agricultural cooperative in the United States. Sunkist now has over 1,500 members, many of whom are small family farmers. They offer more than 40 different citrus products.
Today, Sunkist sells fresh oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruits, and tangerines. These fruits come from 6,000 farmers in California and Arizona. Sunkist also licenses its brand name to other companies. This means other companies can use the Sunkist name on their products. There are over 600 Sunkist-branded products, mostly citrus-flavored. These include soft drinks, vitamins, jellies, and candies. You can find these products in more than 50 countries.
Sunkist also owns two plants that process citrus fruits. These plants make juice, oils, pulp, and peels from the fruit.
Examples of Sunkist Products You Might Know
- Sunkist soft drinks like "Sunkist Orange Soda" are made by Keurig Dr Pepper.
- "Sunkist Fruit Gems" are soft fruit candies made by Jelly Belly.
- "Sunkist Fruit Snacks" and "Sunkist Fruit & Grain Bars" are sold by General Mills.
- You can find Sunkist juice and juice drinks in many countries around the world, including Japan, South Korea, and Belgium.
See also
