Florida Citrus Stalwarts Succeed In Blueberries
February 1, 2010 Since his grandfather, William Gee Roe, began his packing operation in Central Florida in 1925, Bill Roe says the family business has evolved and adapted over time to remain successful. Now, a fourth-generation business, the heart of its success is a commitment to quality in the product it delivers.
Over the years, Wm. G. Roe & Sons (www.wgroe.com) has added a juice plant to its fresh tangerine shipping operation, other enterprises, as well as a growing business in blueberry packing more recently.
“My grandfather came to Florida from upstate New York after becoming established up there as a reliable tree fruit broker at the auction houses in the city,” says Roe. “By the early ’20s, he had cobbled together a half dozen or so packing operations and was supplying oranges and grapefruit to several auction houses in the Northeast.”
The elder Roe began construction of today’s packinghouse in 1925 and finished in 1927 with financing from CSX Rail. It became one the first million-box facilities in Florida. Bill’s father Willard and uncle Fred joined their dad in operating the packinghouse after they returned home from World War II and kept the business going and growing after he passed away in 1953.
Changing With The Times
By the 1980s, Bill and his brother Quentin were back from school and working the family business again. Quentin was responsible for focusing on a modern-age marketing program and Bill headed up grove operations. Back then, the company had evolved and Wm. G. Roe & Sons had become a rather large grower, providing about 50% of the fresh fruit it shipped.
“We had a saying back when we had the groves,” says Roe. “I was in charge of turning the money into fruit, and Quentin was in charge of turning the fruit into money.”
During the 1980s, the citrus industry was changing along with a rail industry that was imploding. As the rail industry faded, so too did the fruit auction houses that had been the means of fruit trade for many years.
“The decline in rail traffic opened the door for the modern age of trucking,” says Roe. “When that happened, all of the retailers started opening distribution centers, which caused further decline in the auction houses. Our business adapted accordingly, and today 90% of our fruit is sold directly through retail distribution networks.”
The company continued to grow after purchasing another packinghouse in Haines City in the middle ’80s. For a few years, they were the largest packers in Florida, but the freeze of 1989 changed the citrus world once again.
“The northern citrus country got clobbered, so we ended up selling the Haines City plant and going back to being a smaller, more focused packer and marketer,” says Roe. “Today, we source virtually 100% of our fruit for our NOBLE brand.”
Another problem arose during that period when Roe could find no market for its elimination fruit. Always looking for solutions, Wm. G. Roe & Sons added a juice plant in 1995. The company now markets its own brand of NOBLE tangerine juice and other boutique juices. It also juices for private labels with tight specs that the larger juice makers are not interested in pursuing.
“We found out there is a steep learning curve in the juice business,” says Roe. “We took a licking but kept on ticking, and after a couple of years learned the secrets of making good tangerine juice.”
Capitalizing On The Blues
As Florida’s citrus industry has evolved, Wm. G. Roe & Sons found it increasingly difficult to compete in the spring Valencia market. During late spring, there is more orange supply than demand.
The market dynamic was giving the company the blues, no doubt, but that was when the family business again evolved to find a solution to a problem — blueberries. They purchased a 20-acre blueberry field on April Fool’s day in 2006, and also opened a packing operation for other local growers. Luckily, the move has turned out to be far from foolish for the company.
“The state has seen a dramatic expansion in blueberries,” says Roe. “Five years ago, we were growing 7 million pounds of blueberries in Florida. Last year, it marketed 13 million pounds. The expectation is Florida will be at about 25 million pounds within five years.”
What is unique about blueberries in Florida is its market window of opportunity. From the last 10 days of March until the first 10 days in April, Florida is the sole supplier of blueberries, making for high-profit potential. Net returns can range from $2.50 to $3.00 per pound, with a benchmark yield of 10,000 pounds per acre.
Roe’s packing facility for its own berries and other growers has seen steady growth and has brought in solid cash flow for the company during the once stagnant spring window.
Like with the juice plant, blueberries come with a learning curve. One of the biggest challenges for both growers and packers is getting the field heat out of the berries. If that is not done properly, the berries go soft and lose shelf life quickly.
“We’ve invested quite a bit in equipment and fans to pull the field heat out of the blueberries,” says Roe. “Within an hour of getting the blueberries in the packinghouse, we have gotten them down to 48°F, which is the standard temperature of our packing room. This is very important with our warm climate here in Florida.”
Roe says growing berries also requires intense management, with production costs in the $5,000 per acre range, which includes replacement blueberry bushes.
Roe’s entry into the blueberry world is one of many examples of why the family business has been a successful venture since 1927. Though a lot of growers are jumping on the blueberry bandwagon, he believes there is great profit potential in the crop for several more years to come.
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