At a young age, Anthony Rossi developed a strong work ethic that he eventually used to grow a small investment into one of the world’s largest producers of citrus juice. Rossi ran several successful businesses in various industries before going all in on manufacturing orange and grapefruit juice.
Rossi kept his faith through his success with his famous saying, “God loves me. And all God does is for my own good.”
Rossi was born in Messina, Italy in 1900. In 1908, when Rossi was 8 years old, disaster struck. An earthquake and tsunami riddled his hometown.
The small village was nearly completely destroyed. Rossi lost relatives to the destruction, including his oldest brother. But the experience inspired Rossi to strengthen his faith in God.
After briefly serving in the Italian military in World War I, Rossi followed his dream of going to America. With very little money in his pockets, Rossi boarded a ship from Italy to New York City at age 21. He could speak just a few phrases in English.
In New York City, Rossi took on several jobs to make a living. He worked as a mechanic’s assistant and drove a cab. Rossi eventually started his own limousine company, and then one of the city’s first self-service grocery stores.
On to Florida
Rossi had his eyes on warmer weather and relocated to Florida. There he ran a successful cafeteria before purchasing a restaurant in Miami. However, once World War II broke out, tourism declined, which greatly reduced business at Rossi’s eateries.Rossi sold his restaurants and marketed gift boxes filled with citrus fruits to New York department stores, like Macy’s. As demand grew, Rossi started selling orange slices in glass jars. He then got the idea of making juice out of the oranges slices that he couldn’t sell.
He developed refrigerated vehicles from dairy trucks, and started selling fresh orange juice. He promoted orange juice to schools. He renamed his business “Tropicana” after seeing a sign advertising cabins with the same name on the side of the road.
In the 1960s, he pioneered a pasteurization method where he could quickly heat the juice without losing any flavor. Now Rossi could ship and store pure orange juice without refrigeration.
A National Brand
Rossi’s $15,000 investment expanded to a giant enterprise. He produced everything in-house. “We make our own glass containers, our own plastic screw-on caps, our own juice cartons, plastic containers for other juice products and even our own cardboard boxes for shipping,” Rossi once said to potential investors, according to his biography titled “Anthony T. Rossi, Christian and Entrepreneur: The Story of the Founder of Tropicana,” written by Rossi’s second wife Sanna Barlow Rossi.
Rossi believed in quality at a low cost. “We keep the quality of Tropicana the very best. We believe in maintaining maximum volume at lower prices than those of our competitors. Profit is due to volume as well as to our savings by producing our own supplies of containers and boxes. For the past ten years, Tropicana has doubled its profits every two and a half years.”
Throughout his life, Rossi struggled through adversity including losing his first wife, suffering a fire in one of his factories, and surviving an armed robbery attempt. However, Rossi always stayed true to his faith. He imagined to one day use his success to give back to his community. One of his first projects was to establish a church in his hometown in Italy.
Rossi would soon be able to fulfill his true dream of giving back when he received the opportunity of a lifetime. In 1978, Rossi received an offer from Beatrice Foods to sell Tropicana, but he didn’t want to sell. Thinking that Beatrice would refuse, Rossi put a price tag on Tropicana of $52 per share, when the stocks were only trading for $36. But Beatrice Foods accepted the offer, which amounted to $495 million. Rossi could now live his dream assisting the work of missionaries. Rossi first established a retirement community for retired missionaries. He then provided cassette tapes of the Bible for the vision impaired.
Before his death in 1993, Rossi and his Aurora Foundation donated millions of dollars to Christian causes. He was able to use his great success in business to fulfill his true lifetime goal of giving back to God, whom he credited with everything he achieved in his life.
