View source for Florida's Natural Growers

{{Short description|Agricultural cooperative based in Florida}}
{{use mdy dates |date=June 2023}}
{{refimprove|date=July 2018}}
{{Infobox company
| name             = Florida's Natural
| logo             = Floridas natural logo.PNG
| type             = [[Agricultural cooperative]]
| foundation       = {{Start date|1933}}
| location_city    = [[Lake Wales, Florida|Lake Wales]], [[Florida]]
| location_country = [[United States]]
| members          = 1100<ref name="funding universe">{{cite web|title=Florida's Natural Growers|url=http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Floridas-Natural-Growers-Company-History.html|work=Funding Universe|accessdate=15 May 2010}}</ref>
| num_employees    =
| homepage         = [http://www.floridasnatural.com/ floridasnatural.com]
}}
'''Florida's Natural Growers''' is an [[agricultural cooperative]] based in [[Lake Wales, Florida]].  It is currently owned by over 1,100 grower members. It was the only national [[orange juice]] maker that used only US-grown fruit (grown by its cooperative members in [[Florida]]) in its products;  however, this policy changed starting in May 2022.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pulp Fiction? Florida's Natural Now Made with Orange Juice Concentrate from Mexico |url=https://truthinadvertising.org/articles/pulp-fiction-floridas-natural-now-made-with-orange-juice-concentrate-from-mexico/ |access-date=2023-01-20 |website=Truth in Advertising |language=en}}</ref>  After that time, Florida's Natural products included concentrated orange juice from Mexico.
==History==
Florida's Natural Growers was founded in 1933 as '''Florida Citrus Canners Cooperative'''. Its initial operations included canning juice and grapefruit sections for its members,<ref>[http://www.vendingmarketwatch.com/online/article.jsp?siteSection=1&id=23165 Florida’s Natural Growers Reports Outstanding Financial Results.]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} ''Vending Market Watch.'' 26 Nov. 2008.</ref> and in 1938 began extracting juice with automated machines.  During World War II, the company produced concentrated orange juice for the military; after the war, 80% of the juice the company produced was in frozen concentrate form to meet consumer demand for the relatively new, convenient form.
In the 1960s, consumer demand shifted to ready-to-drink orange juice, and frozen concentrate sales declined while demand for chilled juices increased.  In 1969, the cooperative took the name '''Citrus World''' and adopted the current name, Florida's Natural Growers, in 1998.  It is currently composed of 12 representatives of 14 citrus cooperatives: Waverly Growers Cooperative, Lake Placid Cooperative, [[Ben Hill Griffin]] Inc., Haines City Citrus Growers Association, Orange Growers Marketing Association, Lake Wales Citrus Growers Association, Hunt Brothers Cooperative, Citrus Marketing Services Inc, Peace River Packing Company, Dundee Citrus Growers Association, Winter Haven Citrus Growers Association, and Umatilla Citrus Growers Association, Southern Gardens Citrus Growers, and Lykes.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.floridasnatural.com/co-op/meet-the-co-op |title=Meet the Co-op |accessdate=2010-01-29 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100223014804/http://www.floridasnatural.com/co-op/meet-the-co-op |archivedate=2010-02-23 }}</ref>
In 2001, the company opened the "Grove House", a visitor's center across the street from its Lake Wales, Florida processing plant.<ref>{{cite news|title=Grove House': A Fruitful Escape for Tourists|newspaper=News Chief|date=March 29, 2001 }}</ref>  The Grove House is open Monday through Friday 10 am to 5 pm, and is closed from Memorial Day through the last day of September.
==Products and marketing==
[[File:Florida's Natural Growers.jpg|thumb|Florida's Natural Growers]]
Florida's Natural produces [[citrus]] juices (mainly [[orange juice]] and lemonades) under the Florida's Natural, Coral Reef Juice Co. and [[Donald Duck (orange juice)|Donald Duck]] brand names.
The company's primary marketing strategy is to differentiate itself from main competitors [[Simply Orange]], [[Minute Maid]] and [[Tropicana Products|Tropicana]]. It does this by emphasizing its cooperative organization ("Florida's Natural. Together, from Tree to Table"). By comparison, Simply Orange and Minute Maid are both owned by [[Coca-Cola]], while Tropicana is owned in a joint venture by French private equity firm, [[PAI Partners]] with [[PepsiCo]] keeping a 39% non-controlling stake. As a citrus cooperative, Florida's Natural uses citrus grown by its cooperative members in Central and South Florida in its products (as well as concentrated citrus juice from Mexico), and seeks to provide the maximum return for fruit to its members, supporting these citrus growers and their families.
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
*[http://www.floridasnatural.com Florida's Natural]
*[http://www.drinkinthemagic.com Disney-branded juice drinks]
[[Category:1933 establishments in Florida]]
[[Category:Juice brands]]
[[Category:Agricultural marketing cooperatives]]
[[Category:Companies based in Polk County, Florida]]
[[Category:Lake Wales, Florida]]
[[Category:Organizations established in 1933]]
[[Category:Florida culture]]
[[Category:American brands]]
[[Category:Agricultural cooperatives in the United States]]
[[Category:Citrus industry in Florida]]
[[Category:Cooperatives based in Florida]]