As Bealls Inc. moves into Tropicana Products former headquarters on 13th Avenue East, one can trace a bit of Bradenton history by a brief look at two of the city's most prominent businesses.
Both got their start in Bradenton.
The citrus processing plant has provided employment for area residents for several generations while growing into an international business. Tropicana was once Manatee County's largest private employer, with more than 4,000 workers across the country. Today, Tropicana has 1,600 employees in Bradenton alone.
Bealls Inc., founded in 1915, is now the county's largest private employer, with 2,100 workers.
The department store also has expanded to include stores throughout southern and southwestern states.
The original Bealls Department store downtown stood in the 1000 block of Manatee Avenue West.
Proceeds from the property sale in the 1980s established the R.M. Beall Sr. Foundation, which has benefitted charities for the past 20 years.
As Bealls Inc. expanded to a chain of stores regionally and then nationally, it maintained its headquarters in Bradenton, most recently on 38th Avenue East before its move in March to the former Tropicana executive offices.
Tropicana Products was founded in Bradenton in 1947 by Anthony Rossi, an Italian immigrant who developed a pasteurization process for fresh chilled orange juice. Tropicana quickly became familiar in such faraway places as New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel and Macy's. Tropicana became a publicly traded company in 1969, was acquired in 1978 by Beatrice Foods, and in 1998 became part of PepsiCo Inc.
John E. "Dick" Fitzgerald Sr. began working for Anthony Rossi and Tropicana in 1952. A native Floridian, he grew up in Palmetto. After serving in the Army Air Corps, he enrolled in Rollins College under the G.I. Bill, graduating with a business degree. He retired in 1992 after a 40-year career with Tropicana, but has worked since then as a consultant. The company, which began with 23 acres, now has a 284.5-acre facility, and Fitzgerald has been a part of its history for the past 55 years.
"At one time, Tropicana was the largest employer in Manatee County," Fitzgerald said. "Probably half the families in Manatee County had someone work here."
Besides employing heads of households and supporting generations of Bradenton families, the company also provided summer jobs for college students.
"I wish I had a dollar for every graduate of Southeast, Manatee and Palmetto high schools who worked here," Fitzgerald said. "Now they are doctors, lawyers, accountants, professional people."
At its peak, there were around 4,000 people employed nationwide by Tropicana, with another 4,000 working as harvesters and pickers, he said. Tropicana stopped harvesting citrus in the 1970s.
Tropicana is still rolling orange juice and other products out of Bradenton, as commuters who wait for its trains to pass can attest. With up to 65 orange Tropicana box cars, the mile-long trains might be bound for distribution centers in Jersey City, Cincinnati, or City of Industry, Calif.
