Tropicana Brands Group facts for kids
Flat version of the Tropicana logo as of 2007
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Formerly
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Tropicana Products, Inc. (until 2021) |
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| Private | |
| Founded | 1947 |
| Founder | Anthony T. Rossi |
| Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Products | Fruit juice |
| Parent | PAI Partners (61%) PepsiCo (39%) |
Tropicana Brands Group is a famous American company that makes fruit juice. It was started in 1947 by a man named Anthony T. Rossi in Bradenton, Florida. For a long time, Tropicana was owned by PepsiCo, the company that makes Pepsi soda.
In 2021, PepsiCo sold most of Tropicana to a French company called PAI Partners. Now, PAI Partners owns the larger part of the company, while PepsiCo still owns a smaller share.
Contents
The History of Tropicana
How Tropicana Started
The story of Tropicana begins with its founder, Anthony T. Rossi. He moved from Sicily, Italy, to the United States in 1921. He worked many jobs, including as a taxi driver and a farmer. In 1940, he moved to Florida and got into the citrus fruit business.
At first, Rossi sold gift boxes of fresh Florida fruit to big department stores in New York. In 1947, he started a company in Palmetto, Florida, where he packed fruit boxes and jars of sliced fruit for salads. His business did so well that he moved to a bigger building in Bradenton, Florida. He even supplied fruit for the salads at the famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. Soon, he also began making frozen concentrated orange juice.
New Ideas and a Famous Mascot
In 1952, Rossi bought a company that canned grapefruit. His juice business was so successful that he stopped selling fruit boxes. In 1954, he created a new way to keep juice fresh called flash pasteurization. This process heats the juice for a very short time to kill germs but keep the fresh taste. This made it possible to sell chilled, ready-to-drink juice, which became Tropicana's most famous product, Tropicana Pure Premium.
The company also created a cartoon mascot named Tropic-Ana. She was a young girl with bare feet who carried oranges on her head. She wore a grass skirt and a flower necklace called a lei. Tropic-Ana appeared on juice cartons and even on the trains that carried the juice. She was a popular symbol for the brand until the 1980s.
In 1957, the company officially changed its name to Tropicana Products, Inc. because the Tropicana brand had become so well-known.
The Famous Juice Train
To get its fresh juice to people, Tropicana needed a good way to ship it. In the 1950s, the company used refrigerated trucks. By 1958, a large ship called the S.S. Tropicana was carrying 1.5 million gallons of juice to New York every week.
In 1970, Tropicana started using refrigerated train cars to ship its juice. A year later, the company launched the "Great White Juice Train." This was a special train made up of only Tropicana cars. It traveled over 1,250 miles from Florida to Kearny, New Jersey. Using a train was a smart idea because it used less fuel than trucks.
How the Company Grew
Going Public and Expanding
In 1969, Tropicana began selling shares of its company on the New York Stock Exchange. This meant that anyone could buy a small piece of the company. In the same year, Tropicana became the first company in the citrus industry to make its own plastic bottles.
In 1978, the founder, Anthony T. Rossi, sold Tropicana to another company and retired. Over the next two decades, Tropicana was bought by different companies, including The Seagram Company. During this time, Tropicana started selling new kinds of juice drinks.
In the 1990s, Tropicana began to sell its juice all over the world. It started selling in countries like Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and Japan. It also expanded into Latin America and China. In 1995, Tropicana bought the juice business of the Dole Food Company.
Becoming Part of PepsiCo
In 1998, PepsiCo bought Tropicana. This made Tropicana the world's biggest producer of branded fruit juices. In 2003, the company's main office was moved from Florida to Chicago.
For a while, Tropicana used only oranges from Florida. But after a disease called citrus greening damaged many of Florida's orange trees, the company started using oranges from both Florida and Brazil.
In 2009, Tropicana tried a new design for its cartons, but many customers didn't like it. After sales dropped, the company quickly switched back to the old design with the orange and straw.
Recent Changes and Challenges
On August 3, 2021, PepsiCo sold a large part of its juice brands, including Tropicana, to a company called PAI Partners for $3.3 billion. PepsiCo did this to focus more on snack foods and zero-calorie drinks.
In recent years, Tropicana has faced some difficulties. In February 2025, the company reported it was having financial problems. It said this was because fewer people were drinking orange juice, and the cost of things was going up. Also, bad weather in Florida and Brazil, linked to climate change, hurt the orange crops.
Other Tropicana Products
Besides its famous orange juice, Tropicana has made other products over the years.
- Trop50: This is a juice drink with 50% less sugar and calories than regular orange juice.
- Tropicana Twister Soda: For a short time, Pepsi made fruit-flavored sodas under the Tropicana name.
- Tropicana Crunch: In 2022, the company released a limited-edition breakfast cereal that was designed to be eaten with orange juice instead of milk.
Tropicana in the Community
Tropicana has been involved in projects to help the environment. In 2008, it worked with a charity called Cool Earth to help save parts of the rainforest in Peru. The company has also encouraged people to recycle their juice cartons.
Tropicana also sponsors Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. This is the stadium where the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team plays.
See also
In Spanish: Tropicana Products para niños
- Agriculture in Florida
