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Southern Gardens becomes 14th Member of Florida’s Natural Growers
Clewiston, Florida— (Southern Gardens News Release) June 22, 2012–Southern Gardens Groves Corporation of Clewiston, Florida, an industry leader in agricultural products and a premier Florida grower organization, was approved as a stockholder member. Florida’s Natural Growers Board of Directors voted Thursday to add Southern Gardens Groves Corporation as a 14th stockholder member to the Cooperative member base. The commitment of Southern Gardens to the cooperative prepares Florida’s Natural Growers for future Brand growth of its Not-From-Concentrate flagship Brand, Florida’s Natural®.
“The addition of our 14th stockholder member, Southern Gardens Groves Corporation, will help secure a supply of fruit to further grow our Not-From-Concentrate business and provide Florida oranges for our never imported Florida’s Natural® Brand. Florida’s Natural® is experiencing significant brand growth with record market share increases, distribution and consumer loyalty,” commented Steve Caruso, CEO of the Cooperative. The past three years have been record years for Florida’s Natural Growers’ in terms of fruit returns and growth to its members’ equity despite the challenging economic environment.
“Southern Gardens, a leading grower and processor of premium quality orange juice and citrus by-products, believes that becoming a grower member of the Florida’s Natural Growers Cooperative provides a great opportunity to enhance its presence and growth in the Florida citrus industry,” stated Rick Kress, President of Southern Gardens.
Kress said that Southern Gardens’ fruit commitment to Florida’s Natural will continue to be processed at its Southern Gardens Citrus Processing Plant and that this partnership will operate in conjunction with other initiatives recently completed and/or in progress to ensure Southern Garden’s long term presence in the Florida citrus industry.
1. Company efforts to develop and commercialize a viable solution to the citrus greening disease are progressing to the point that application for a required Emergency Use Field trial permit will occur by late 2012.
2. The total conversion from fuel oil to natural gas will be completed in advance of the 2012/13 harvest, emphasizing facility sustainability and the environmental stewardship.
3. In response to the Florida citrus industry’s continued shortage of high quality nursery trees, Southern Gardens is completing a 50% expansion of its nursery operation in Trenton, FL. The nursery was built to provide trees to replant Southern Gardens groves.
4. Southern Garden’s parent company, US Sugar Corporation, is in the process of extending its railroad service to the citrus operation, enabling all future shipments of its citrus products to be transported via rail, removing a significant number of truck traffic from the local road system.
5. As part of its “Ground to the Glass” business strategy, Southern Gardens is expanding its grove vertical integration program involving grove care, harvesting and haul programs for other interested Florida growers.
Kress concludes by noting that “Florida’s Natural is a leading national brand of citrus products and including a portion of Southern Gardens’ fruit portfolio in this partnership will strengthen and grow both companies– now and in the future.”
About Florida’s Natural Growers
First formed in 1933, the growers’ cooperative was named Florida Citrus Canners Cooperative, as its main function was canning grapefruit sections and juice for its grower members. After the development of frozen concentrated juices in the 1940’s, the Cooperative invested in the necessary infrastructure and became one of the largest juice processors in the state. In 1969, the Canners Cooperative eventually changed its name to Citrus World, Inc. to better reflect its diverse product line. Today, the majority of the Cooperative’s sales are derived from the Florida’s Natural ® Brand squeezed from 100% Florida oranges. The cooperative now uses Florida’s Natural Growers as its name.
Florida’s Natural Growers is comprised of fourteen grower organizations representing almost 1,000 individual growers who own nearly 60,000 acres of citrus in Florida. Florida’s Natural Growers operates its processing plant in Lake Wales, Florida, with a juice packaging plant in Umatilla, Florida. The Lake Wales facility employs 670 employees in Lake Wales and 101 in Umatilla, Florida and can extract over nine million pounds of fruit every twenty-four hours in peak season. Brands produced in Lake Wales include Florida’s Natural ®, Florida’s Natural Growers Pride ®, Donald Duck ®, and Bluebird ®.
About Southern Gardens Groves Corporation
Southern Gardens (SG) is one of Florida’s premier agribusiness companies. Southern Gardens owns and/or manages 16,500 net acres of citrus groves in Southern Hendry County. These groves, one of the largest under single ownership in the country, contain 1.8 million trees which will provide high quality fruit to Florida’s Natural Growers Cooperative and the Southern Gardens Citrus Processing Plant. SG also owns an enclosed, state-of-the-art citrus nursery in Gilchrist County, west of Gainesville, providing disease-free trees to replant grove acreage lost to citrus canker and greening. Southern Gardens long has been recognized as an industry leader in efficiency, vertical integration, modern grove management and citrus research.
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Contact: Ricke Kress,
President, Southern Gardens
863-902-4107
Southeast AgNet’s Gary Cooper files this report for the network:
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