Tropicana to shut down a Florida orange juicing plant, moving operations to Bradenton
Citing the steep decline in the Florida citrus industry, Tropicana advised the state of Florida this week that it is closing its Fort Pierce plant in St. Lucie County.
“Unfortunately, all fruit processing operations will be closed at Fort Piece and all employees in fruit processing, citrus operations, feed mill and fruit maintenance operations will be impacted,” Jennifer Kane, Tropicana’s human resources representative, wrote in a certified letter to the state.
The letter — known as a WARN notification for the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act — said all affected employees have been notified of their separation effective July 15 and that they would be paid through Sept. 13.
The letter identified 27 positions that would be affected.
WFLA reports Tropicana contacted St. Lucie County to say the juicing operations would move to Bradenton, but storage, packaging and distribution will remain in Fort Pierce where there are 258 employees.
“We will not be processing fruit there for the 2023 season and are consolidating that work to our Bradenton plant,” Tropicana spokesperson Hannah Donohue told the Business Observer. “Unfortunately, there is a small portion of our full time team who will be impacted by this change and we are committed to offering them support in finding other work, whether within our existing operations or elsewhere.”
The collective bargaining agreement for workers represented by the Teamsters union contains bumping rights, meaning a more senior employee who has been laid off could replace a more junior employee.
Citrus diseases including greening and canker have devastated Florida’s signature orange crop.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s final orange crop estimate for the 2021-22 season forecast 40.7 million boxes of oranges, down from just two years ago when 71.85 million boxes of oranges were forecast, said Tamara Wood, a communications consultant for Florida Citrus Mutual.
The peak orange forecast in recent years was for 170 million boxes of oranges in the 2007-08 season, Wood said.
For several years, Tropicana had helped make up for the shortfall in domestic orange production by importing South American citrus at Port Manatee.
In August of 2021, PepsiCo Inc. announced that it had entered into an agreement to sell Tropicana, Naked and other juice brands across North America to PAI Partners for pretax cash proceeds of $3.3 billion.
Tropicana, one of the Bradenton area’s largest employers, was founded in 1947 by Anthony T. Rossi, who developed flash pasteurization and pioneered orange juice transport in 1970 via train from Florida to New York.
In the deal announced in 2021, PepsiCo would retain a 39% non-controlling interest in a newly formed joint venture.
This story was originally published July 20, 2022 at 4:32 PM.
