Natalie’s Orchid Island Juice Company founder and CEO Marygrace Sexton has been inducted into the Specialty Food Association Hall of Fame.
Sexton started the company more than 30 years ago with a single, used juicing machine, no contracts and a small production space. Today, the company has two facilities in Fort Pierce, Florida, and distributes its juices in 32 states and 41 countries.
The company has won numerous awards for its line of squeezed fresh, minimally processed juices. It has appeared on Inc. Magazine’s list of fastest growing private companies for several years. Sexton was included in Inc. Magazine’s Female Founders 100 in 2021; learn more about that honor.
Sexton has overseen daily operations at Natalie’s since the company’s founding in 1989. Sexton launched a direct-to-consumer e-commerce site. She and her daughter Natalie, vice president of marketing, have grown the juice business into a multimillion-dollar brand.
“Natalie’s global success can be attributed to the core values that our founder Marygrace Sexton established for the company from the beginning,” Natalie said. “My mother worked hard to build this successful business from scratch, and she continues to inspire me and the countless others she meets in the course of growing this great company.”
“This is a special honor for me because the Specialty Food Association shows have always been very important for introducing retailers and distributors to our brand,” Sexton said.
This year’s class of hall of fame inductees was honored on June 12 during the Summer Fancy Food Show at the Javits Center in New York City. Others inducted into the Specialty Food Association Hall of Fame this year include:
- Ted Dennard, founder of Savannah Bee Company
- Caryl Levine and Ken Lee, founders of Lotus Foods
- Pierluigi Sini, co-founder of Forever Cheese
- Dariush and Jamshid Soofer, founders of Sadaf
Source: Natalie’s Orchid Island Juice Company
