J.E. McLean & Sons Inc. is hoping to counter a dropoff in business with a new fruit basket shipping operation.
By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published June 27, 2003
VALRICO - The Florida citrus industry has weathered a lot in the six decades since J.E. "Bob" McLean III launched a thriving operation that manages and harvests hundreds of acres of juice fruit.
Orange, tangerine and grapefruit growers are constantly tested - with destructive invaders such as citrus canker and tristeza, with winter freezes and with competition from Brazilian citrus companies.
Through it all, J.E. McLean & Sons Inc. hangs on, often by making the changes necessary to survive.
At its peak, the Valrico business harvested and maintained 1,000 acres of citrus groves for growers in southern Hillsborough and Manatee counties.
Today, the family-run company has scaled back to about 500 acres in both counties, including roughly 100 that belong to the McLeans. The rest belongs to families and small operations that pay McLean & Sons to keep their trees healthy and their oranges sweet. Fees range from $35 an hour for mowing to $150 an acre for fertilizing.
But business continues to be a challenge. In Hillsborough and beyond, groves are falling to the canker bacteria and other viruses, and the Brazilian citrus industry's domination threatens profits for U.S. growers.
So once again, McLean & Sons is shifting focus, this time to the gift fruit shipping business.
Ron English, production manager for McLean & Sons, said the business could be solely a fruit basket operation within 10 years.
Already, McLean & Sons operates a small fruit stand at its Valrico headquarters, where during the harvest season folks can drop by to buy fresh-picked oranges or order fruit baskets for friends across the United States.
The cost of shipping a box depends on the destination. For example, sending a 20-pound box to New York costs about $20; a 40-pound box, $30.
Now the company is gearing up for larger-scale gift mailing. McLean & Sons recently bought additional packing equipment and plans to build a bigger facility where fruit can be prepared for dispatch.
There is more potential profit in shipping fruit baskets, "because you can handle less volume and charge more in return," said English, son-in-law of Bob McLean, who founded the company in the 1940s.
The past decade or so has been especially trying for McLean & Sons. In the mid '90s, the company swallowed a loss of about $300,000 when one of their largest orange buyers went under.
Some of the groves the company manages and owns have been hurt by tristeza, a virus that English likens to clogged arteries because it blocks trees from taking up nutrients. Last year, Bob McLean sold 16 of the family's 150-acre grove to a home developer after tristeza moved in.
"That was probably one of the highest-producing groves around, before the tristeza," English said. "And when somebody offers you $35,000 an acre, you can't make that in oranges."
With their reduced acreage, the McLeans now sell about 200,000 boxes of oranges, weighing 90 pounds each. At one time, the business sold as many as 400,000 boxes. They sell primarily to Cutrale, the Brazilian company that took over Coca-Cola's Minute Maid in 1996.
Despite its fluctuating size and focus, McLean & Sons remains a family operation, just like the name suggests.
Three of the four full-time employees are part of the McLean family. There's owner and chief executive officer Bob McLean; his son-in-law Scott Bravis, who oversees vehicle maintenance and transportation; and English.
During the harvest season, the company hires one or two crews of 15 to 20 people each.
Next to Brazil, Florida produces more oranges than any other region of the world. The state leads the world in grapefruit production.
More than 12,000 citrus growers cultivate 107-million citrus trees on about 800,000 acres in Florida, according to the Florida Department of Citrus. The citrus industry generates more than $8-billion in economic activity in Florida.
"We've seen some good years and some bad," English said. "It's one of those things that, it's all we know, so we just keep doing it."
WHAT: Manages and harvests about 500 acres of citrus groves in southern Hillsborough and Manatee counties. Ships gift fruit and sells fresh citrus from a roadside stand, starting in late October.
