Anthony Rossi was an entrepreneur in search of a way to use the smaller fruit instead of the majority going to waste, but to Mr. Rossi, this was not a dilemma. It was an opportunity. He would squeeze the smaller oranges into juice, and then ship it to the Northeast along with fresh fruit sections. With this goal in mind, Mr. Rossi moved his packing operation from Palmetto to Bradenton and formed Fruit Industries, Inc.-the company that was to become Tropicana. The company made a big splash in 1955, when it introduced the world's first and only orange juice tank ship. Tropicana® built a processing plant in Cocoa Beach, on Florida's East Coast, and another plant for receiving, packaging, and distribution in Whitestone, New York. Then, a ship was purchased, refitted with stainless steel tanks and christened the SS Tropicana. At peak capacity, the ship carried 1.5 million gallons of orange juice from Florida to New York. In 1969, Tropicana's Great White Train, the first unit train in the food industry, carried orange juice and oranges across America. The train, which made its inaugural run to the Northeast in 1970, was later highlighted orange to better advertise its famous
Anthony Rossi was an entrepreneur in search of a way to use the smaller fruit instead of the majority going to waste, but to Mr. Rossi, this was not a dilemma. It was an opportunity. He would squeeze the smaller oranges into juice, and then ship it to the Northeast along with fresh fruit sections. With this goal in mind, Mr. Rossi moved his packing operation from Palmetto to Bradenton and formed Fruit Industries, Inc.-the company that was to become Tropicana. The company made a big splash in 1955, when it introduced the world's first and only orange juice tank ship. Tropicana® built a processing plant in Cocoa Beach, on Florida's East Coast, and another plant for receiving, packaging, and distribution in Whitestone, New York. Then, a ship was purchased, refitted with stainless steel tanks and christened the SS Tropicana. At peak capacity, the ship carried 1.5 million gallons of orange juice from Florida to New York. In 1969, Tropicana's Great White Train, the first unit train in the food industry, carried orange juice and oranges across America. The train, which made its inaugural run to the Northeast in 1970, was later highlighted orange to better advertise its famous