Juice manufacturer enters expanded 10-year strategic relationship with Coca-Cola North America.
Peace River Citrus Products, Inc., an independent and privately owned Florida-based citrus processor, announced plans for a $98 million expansion at its citrus processing facility in Bartow. The new 320,000-square-foot facility expansion is expected to create up to 175 jobs in Polk County and be completed in early 2022.
Peace River also announced today that it plans to expand its strategic relationship with long-time beverage partner Coca-Cola North America with a new 10-year arrangement that has been agreed in principle. Under the terms, Peace River will manufacture select juice beverages — including Minute Maid products for food-service customers — at its expanded Polk County facility, in addition to the extensive citrus-processing operations already conducted for the beverage company throughout Florida.
“Our Bartow facility expansion greatly enhances our relationship with Coca-Cola North America (CCNA), a company we have partnered with for decades,” said Andrew Taylor, senior vice president and chief financial officer of Peace River Citrus Products. “We look forward to continuing our valuable work with CCNA and to providing our customers with high-quality juice products.”
Over the past decade, Peace River and The Coca-Cola Company have made several valuable and long-term investments in the Florida citrus industry. Most recently in 2019, The Coca-Cola Company and Peace River, along with other citrus industry partners, announced an investment of more than $25 million to plant a quarter million new grapefruit trees on 1,500 acres in Florida. In 2013, The Coca-Cola Company made a $2 billion commitment to support the planting of 25,000 new acres of orange groves in Florida, with roughly half of these new groves under the management of Peace River.
“Peace River Citrus Products has been a strategic supplier and brand partner of Coca-Cola North America for more than 40 years,” said Craig Ollinger, vice president, Supply Chain, Coca-Cola North America. “We appreciate Peace River’s continued commitment to growing our juice business in the state and look forward to an even deeper relationship as we modernize and invest for long-term sustainable growth.”