Tropicana’s Partner Decides The Juice Wasn’t Worth The Squeeze… And Shares Pop 28%

Alico (one of the biggest suppliers of oranges for Tropicana) is officially throwing in the towel on its orange business after Mother Nature delivered a sour reality check that no amount of sunshine and juice could fix. The citrus monopoly, which has been squeezing out oranges since before JFK was president, is trading in its fruit for… land. Over the past decade, its citrus production has dropped a scary 73%.

CEO John Kiernan was honest about the situation, admitting, “We’ve explored every option to restore citrus profitability, but the reality is, it’s just not working.” So… They tried everything from organic pesticides to motivational speeches for their oranges, but the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze. Out of the company’s $46.6M total revenue last year, only $45.1M came from citrus… so, yeah, things are about to change.

That’s why Alico’s forgetting oranges… now they’re all about land management. Alico owns 53,371 acres across eight Florida counties, with an estimated value between $650-750 million. About 25% of their land could soon be sold off for commercial and residential use, and 10% is earmarked for development within the next five years.

Investors on Wall Street are clearly loving this change in direction, with Alico’s stock price popping on the news. At the same time, Tropicana’s parent company, PepsiCo, barely reacted with a 1% drop, probably because it’s still figuring out how to get people to care about orange juice again.

But not everything about Alico’s new plan is sunshine and palm trees. The company is cutting 170 positions, which means 135 employees were shown the door on Monday, with the remaining 37 following by April 1. A small citrus operation of 3,460 acres will still be running until 2026, but let’s face it, this is the “last hurrah” for Alico’s orange-growing days.

For a company that’s been growing oranges since 1960, this is a big change. But with Americans turning away from orange juice (thanks a lot Starbucks) and citrus diseases hurting the orange supply, Alico’s decision to focus on land development might just be a smarter play.

P.S. Not to brag (okay, maybe just a little), but we recently ranked #23 for free News Apps, beating The Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, Bloomberg, and more. 🎉 If you want full access to our trading tools (including our "Insider Trade Tracker" to see where the smart money is moving in real time) just become a Stocks.News premium member. Ironically, it costs way less than a Bloomberg subscription. Or hey, no pressure… keep enjoying our articles as a free member. Your call. 😉

Stocks.News has positions in Alico, Starbucks, and Pepsi mentioned in article.