Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Tropicana Products
Tropicana Products is a Bradenton, Florida, USA, based company which is one of the world's largest producers and marketers of citrus 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. Since 1998, it has been owned by Pepsico.
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History
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 emigrated 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 was by way of hand-delivered juice jars to nearby homes, but demand grew, especially in New York City, New York.
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. For the first time, it was possible to offer the consumers over a widespread area the fresh taste of orange juice made from 100-percent fruit. He also devised a method of freezing pure whole citrus juice in 20-gallon blocks for storage and shipping.
innovative shipping: 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, a mile-long Tropicana Juice Train began carrying one million gallons of juice with one weekly round-trip from Florida to Kearny, New Jersey, in the New York City area. Beginning on Seaboard Coast Line (SCL) railroad south of Tampa, Florida, the original "Great White Juice Train" used former Seaboard Air Line (SAL) and Atlantic Coast Line (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.
Rossi sells to Baetrice, retires
Mr. Rossi sold Tropicana to Beatrice Foods in 1978, and retired. He was inducted into to the Florida Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1987.
Corporate, shipping changes 1978-2004
There have been more than a few changes over the years. Tropicana, has been through a number of corporate changes and since 1998, is now a division of PepsiCo. 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.
Tropicana went through ownership periods with Beatrice and Seagram's. Since 1998, it ahs been part of Pepsico, where it was combined with the Dole brand for marketing purposes.
Book
A book about the life of Anthony Rossi is Anthony T. Rossi, Christian and Entrepreneur: The Story of the Founder of Tropicana by Sanna Barlow Rossi. It was published by InterVarsity Press in 1986. (ISBN: 0830849998)
See also
External links
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