SOUTHERN GARDENS CITRUS RECEIVES 2004 EFFICIENCY AWARD

CLEWISTON, Fla. — January 4, 2005 — Southern Gardens Citrus has been awarded the 2004 Efficiency Award from FMC Food Tech, one of the world's leading technology and solutions providers to the food industry. The award recognizes not only superior production, but also attention to quality and customer service.

“Because it comes from a trailblazer in our own industry, this award is especially gratifying,” said Rodney Liddle, President of Southern Gardens. “Our primary aim is to provide the highest quality to our customers, but having our technical expertise recognized is a key indication that we are on the right track.”

FMC Food Tech supplies equipment and technical advice to food suppliers and restaurants worldwide. Its juice extractors, which are in operation at Southern Gardens’ juice processing plant, process 75 percent of the citrus produced in the world.

“According to our data, Southern Gardens continues to be the worldwide leader in juice processed per extractor, with the highest numbers by far,” said Donn Sabato, domestic sales and service manager for FMC Food Tech’s Citrus Systems Division. Southern Gardens processed juice from more than 20 million 90-pound boxes of oranges this past season on approximately 40 extractors, which equates to more than 500,000 boxes per extractor during the season, which runs from October through June.

But the Efficiency Award recognizes more than numbers, Sabato said. “I attribute Southern Gardens’ success to a marriage of the right technology and excellent management systems,” he said. “There’s a high level of sophisticated automation in the plant, but matching that is a very collaborative management style.”

Moreover, “their commitment to quality is second to none,” Sabato said. “Southern Gardens is very aware and sensitive to their customers’ requirements. They don’t see the juice industry as a commodity business; they see it as an opportunity to provide outstanding customer service and high quality products.”

To add increased value to its existing products and services, Southern Gardens rolled out a packaging operation at the beginning of 2004, that represents the completion of a fully integrated manufacturing process.

The packaging line is adjacent to the processing plant and storage facility, resulting in many operational efficiencies. The company converted 25,000 square feet from a cold storage area to the packaging operation, which can produce 120 half-gallon cartons of Not From Concentrate (NFC) orange juice per minute, including “regular,” “low acid,” “pulp-added” and "calcium-added” NFC orange juice. The new operation also has the capacity to shrink-wrap multiple half-gallon cartons for consumers who buy in bulk.

As one of the nation’s largest orange growers and juice processors, Southern Gardens is able to ensure that fresh orange juice is available year-round due to its storage capacity. The company has a 56 million-gallon NFC orange juice storage facility, as well as storage capacity for four million gallons of concentrated juice. Encompassing both 32,000 acres of citrus groves and more than three million trees, Southern Gardens produces more than seven million boxes of Valencia and Hamlin oranges each season.

Using state-of-the-art technology and assuring consistently high quality juice, Southern Gardens supplies more than 50 percent of the nation's private label NFC orange juice.