Tropicana Selects Contractor for Fort Pierce Expansion, Construction to Begin within Next 30 Days

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Tropicana Products, Incorporated (Bradenton, Florida), a division of PepsiCo, Incorporated (NYSE: PEP) (Purchase, New York) has selected a general contractor and awaits a final building permit to begin construction on an expansion at their fruit juice processing plant in Fort Pierce, Florida.

Tropicana Products announced the Fort Pierce expansion in December of last year and has been working on finalizing plant design and procuring equipment for the $23.5 million project that will consist of a new juice mixing and packaging line to meet increased demand for Tropicana's products in the U.S. and Canada.

Florida based, The Haskell Company (Jacksonville, Florida) has been selected as the general contractor and plans to begin right away on construction of the new 9,000 square foot building at the site located at 6500 Glades Cut Off Road in Fort Pierce. A small rail dock structure will be erected in association with the project.

Plans are to install one juice mixing and packaging line that the company hopes will become operational by November of this year.

The expansion will also add about 36 employees to the facility that already employs about 357 people.

The Fort Pierce plant is the largest in acreage of all Tropicana's facilities with 315 acres. It opened in 1973 and processes fruit grown on the eastern side of Florida, supporting Tropicana's Pure Premium brand orange juice.

Tropicana Products Inc, a division of PepsiCo, Inc, is the world's leading producer and marketer of branded fruit juice products. Tropicana markets its products in the U.S. under a number of brand names, including Tropicana Pure Premium Original, Grovestand and HomeStyle juices.