Sunkist Corporate is a soft drink manufacturing company based in California in the U.S. The company mainly manufactures orange and lemonade flavored soft drinks.

History
The history of Sunkist Corporate dates back to the time when man first started eating oranges. Oranges became a part of human diet in 4000 BC. When Columbus visited the Caribbean in 1493, he brought back oranges to his home land along with lemon and citrus seeds. The citrus seeds were planted in American soil for the first time by Father Junipero Serra. By 1790, people started enjoying oranges and lemons in different ways such as lemonade, orange juice and even in tea.

In 1804, the first orchard was planted by Father Cruzado at Mission San Gabriel, California with help from the native tribes of the area.  However, it wasn’t until William Wolfskill planted orange and lemon seedlings in his 2 acre land in Los Angeles that the citrus business began to flourish. In 1848, during the Gold Rush, the demand for citrus fruits became so high that the price reached $1 each for a lemon. During the 1850s, Wolfskill bought 70 acres of land and planted oranges in it. He died in 1866, and the company was handed over to his son, Joseph.

Seedless oranges reached the U.S. when Eliza and Luther Tibbets got three navel orange trees from Brazil as a gift from State Agricultural Commissioner William Saunders. Their oranges were a real hit among the neighbors so the Tibbets started selling buds from the trees for seeding.

In 1877, Wolfskill started to export his products to St. Louis and soon California citrus became very popular all over the country. On Aug. 29, 1893, the citrus growers in California formed the Southern California Fruit Exchange, which later became the Sunkist Growers. The first factory of Sunkist was opened in 1914 to produce marmalade.

In 1921, the company started exporting citrus fruits to London. By 1966, the business was expanded to all other countries selling about 12.4 million cartons in a year. It added orange soda to its product line in 1977. Sales reached $1 billion by 1990 and celebrated 100 years in the business in 1993. During this period, there were 6,500 members of Sunkist Growers, most from California and Arizona. The first tree planted by the Tibbets family is still at the same place, and has become one of the landmarks of the state.

Stats
Company headquarters: 14130 Riverside Drive, Sherman Oaks, CA, USA
Ownership: Private
Geography: Worldwide
Demography: Natural and Organic

Banners
SunMac Hawaii Ltd., Hawaii
Sunkist Global LLC
Sunkist Pacific Ltd., Japan
Sunkist Promotion Ltd., Hong Kong
Sunkist Real Estate Inc.

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