Tropicana Brands is a former American multinational fruit-based beverage company. It was founded in 1947 by Anthony T. Rossi in Bradenton, Florida. Between 1998 and 2021 it was a subsidiary of PepsiCo but in August 2021, 61 percent of it was sold along with other juice brands for $3.3 billion to PAI Partners, a private equity firm.[2] PepsiCo retained the remaining 39 percent of ownership.Anthony T. Rossi was born in Sicily and studied until high school. He immigrated to the United States in 1921 at the age of 21 years. He drove a taxi, was a grocer in New York, farmer in Virginia, and then moved to Florida in 1940 where he farmed and was a restaurateur. His first involvement with the Florida citrus industry was fresh fruit gift boxes sold by Macy's and Gimbels department stores in New York City, New York.[3]In 1947, Rossi settled in Palmetto, Florida and began packing fruit gift boxes and jars of sectioned fruit for salads under the name Manatee River Packing Company. As the fruit segment business grew, the company moved to a larger location in East Bradenton, Florida and changed its name to Fruit Industries.[3] The ingredients for the fresh fruit salads on the menu of New York's famed Waldorf-Astoria Hotel were supplied by Fruit Industries.[4] At the East Bradenton location, Rossi began producing frozen, concentrated orange juice as a natural extension to the fruit section business.[3] [Wikipedia]
