When Bodine`s Inc.`s orange juice business began bursting at the seams, the firm bought an abandoned Borden`s ice cream plant that had burst its pipes.
It was a marriage of convenience for Bodine`s and Borden`s, producing an orange sherbet of sorts.
Bodine`s growth has been rapid. The privately held company had seen sales climb from $5 million in 1978, to $101 million in 1984. It is the largest processor of juices and beverages in the Midwest and the 11th largest fruit-juice packer in the nation, the company said.
The Borden`s plant at 1821 S. Kilbourn Ave. had been closed for four years and the two Bodine`s plants, at 7409 S. State St. and 5757 W. 59th St., were no longer sufficient to support the blossoming business.
”Our growing pains were severe. The refrigeration here and the quarry-tile floors (for efficient drainage) were conducive to our operation. It meets or exceeds USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) requirements,” said Roger Walsh Sr., Bodine`s chief executive officer.
For years, Bodine`s has been a maverick in the orange juice business, both because it is located far from the Florida orange belt and because it has been importing orange-juice concentrate from Brazil for the last few years.
Without groves in Florida, Bodine`s had to buy from growers in Brazil and have the concentrate shipped first to New Jersey, then to Chicago. According to Walsh, that reduced costs because if it were shipped in through Florida, Bodine`s would have to pay for the Florida Citrus Commission seal.
”The people at the Florida Citrus Commission don`t like us too much,”
Walsh confessed.
He`ll get no argument about that from Don Farmer, deputy director of the Florida Department of Citrus, which is supervised by the citrus commission.
”Ninety percent of the money we collect for the seal is used for ads and promotions. They have been getting a free ride on our ads,” Farmer said.
Fighting the Florida folks for years has led Walsh to take some relish in the recent announcement by the Citrus Department that it was replacing its
”100 percent Florida Orange Juice” seal with the ”Florida Seal of Approval.” That approval means that the orange juice measures up to Florida standards, but the oranges can be grown elsewhere–like in Brazil.
Bodine`s has also been helped by the freezes during the last few years that have hurt both the quality and the supply of Florida oranges, Walsh said. Walsh has been credited with being the architect of Bodine`s surge. He joined the firm in 1978 after working for years as a food broker. Walsh worked first in sales, but soon was promoted to chief executive and, most recently, also added the title chief operating officer. He shares a third ownership with Chairman Ed Boden Sr. and Ed Boden Jr., president. The elder Boden found the company in 1955.
”Before 1978, we had not been in the frozen-concentrate area, just chilled. But we had the product available and I had the sales contacts around the country with brokers such as myself,” Walsh said.
The move to the new plant enabled Bodine`s to get continuous inspection from the USDA, a competitive bonus in the juice business, Walsh said.
”The Florida people would tell our prospective customers not to do business with Bodine`s, that we were not in the same league with them because we were not continuously inspected by the USDA,” said Walsh.
Even though it costs about $200,000 to have inspectors at the plant full time, Walsh thinks it`s worth it. The continuous inspection began Aug. 5.
Fighting the Florida interests is a full-time job for Bodine`s. For years, Florida operations had been critical of fruit that came from anywhere but the Sunshine State, Walsh said. But going elsewhere was a key to Bodine`s success.
Bodine`s bought orange-juice concentrate from Brazil and elsewhere and had the concentrate shipped to Chicago. Here, Bodine`s mixes the concentrate, packs it and ships it to its customers from a central location, which has helped keep its prices uniform throughout the country.
”It was an advantage from a freight standpoint. And with it coming from Brazil, we don`t have to pay the citrus commission. We became the mavericks in the industry,” he laughed.
That reasoning is the pitch that Thomas Sheeran, national account manager, uses when he approaches supermarket chains.
”In years past, the majority of orange juice came out of Florida and the freight was quite high. But there`s no such thing as pure Florida orange juice anymore. They use Brazilian orange juice, too. As a regional packer, we have a freight advantage and a lower overhead with our automated plant,” Sheeran said.
A spokesman for the Florida Department of Citrus agreed that there is no purely Florida orange juice anymore, citing the fact in 1980 that there were 200 million boxes of oranges crated in Florida, but by last year, there were only 103 million boxes crated.
”Through our ads and promotions, we`ve created a demand out there, but we`re unable to supply it (because of the freezes),” he said.
As a result of those freezes, prices have gone up. At the same time, orange juice per capita consumption rose from 14.4 pounds in 1982 to 16.2 pounds in 1983, only to drop back to an estimated 14.4 pounds in 1984, according to the Agriculture Department.
When asked about the figures, a spokesman for the Florida Citrus Mutual, a trade group representing Florida citrus farmers, launched into a defense of the Florida orange growers.
”Who would you rather see helped, the U.S. or Brazil? Who would you rather help, American farmers or Brazilian farmers?” he asked.
Walsh, however, has watched the business shift.
”Everyone packing in Florida is now buying from Brazil or some other foreign country,” Walsh said.
While Bodine`s growth has happily coincided with the disastrous freezes, Walsh said his firm has also been helped by what he called ”wide-scale disenchantment” with the Florida orange industry.
”We grew because of our plant location, but also because the average buyer in the industry felt that the Florida people were dictatorial. We`re a small entity compared to the national brands with their national
advertising,” he said.
Back in 1982, Bodine`s first began importing orange-juice concentrate from Brazil`s giant Sucacitrico Citrale S.A. to supplement its Florida concentrate.
When orange-juice prices went up in the wake of the freeze, Bodine`s was ready.
”Consumers started buying apple juice or other products when prices went up,” Walsh said. And while 80 percent of Bodine`s business is orange juice, they also make apple, pineapple-grapefruit, lemonade, and cranberry among others juices.
In recent years, Bodine`s private-label customers have mushroomed.
”We make beverages for more than 180 private-label customers. We have Kroger, Super Valu, and Dominick`s as customers–everyone in the Chicago area but Jewel,” Walsh noted.
A spokesman for Super Valu, the Minneapolis-based food wholesaler and parent company of Cub Foods discount supermarkets, said the company buys from Bodine`s because of the price that results from its central location.
Besides its private-label work, Bodine`s also sells orange juice under its own Vita Gold name. Each day, it churns out 51,750 gallons of various beverages that it sends to 36 states.
But that capacity would have been impossible without moving to the larger plant. And once Bodine`s moved into the concentrate end, its sales grew. The company turned to contract-manufacturers to package their surplus business. By 1980, the firm had bought the old Wanzer dairy plant on South State Street.
”They were stopping production, but everything was running so we never had to shut down. They moved out and we moved in. Within six months we had outgrown that plant. For 62 straight days, we ran 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” Walsh recalled.
But something had to give, so the firm started casting about for an appropriate site.
”While running on State Street, we found this one. We started moving one function at a time into here,” said Walsh.
While the old Borden plant had much of what Bodine`s was looking for, it was in wretched shape after four years of disuse, recalled Roberto Lopez, vice president of operations.
Despite the rundown condition, the 141,000-square-foot plant on 7 acres was exactly the right prescription for Bodine`s growing pains.
”This is basically a sound building. Borden`s did things first class. It has 20-inch-thick walls. But it was in bad shape. The water pipes had frozen and burst. We put $4 million into the building, but it would have cost us more than $7 million to build from scratch,” Lopez said.
Moving in was a step-by-step, room-by-room process that is still being completed.
Soon, Walsh hopes to introduce juice machines into major hotel chains on the West Coast. In addition, Walsh expects several large fast-food chains to begin selling Bodine`s juices.
Even with its huge new facility, Bodine`s plant may still prove insufficient to handle all the mixing and packing. So the company plans to ship the concentrate to dairies that will mix, pack and ship to Bodine`s customers. But doing that, they place their reputation on the line.
”It`s less expensive to ship in the concentrate form. But it`s like apple pie or motherhood–it`s got to be right,” Walsh warned.
