HRT for Women in Plymouth, FL

WHITEMARSH >> Plymouth Whitemarsh senior Naheem McLeod announced his decision to continue his education and basketball career at Florida State University Monday night at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School.

He narrowed his options down to three schools — Florida State, Rhode Island and La Salle. The final decision was between the first two schools.

“It was back-and-forth between Rhode Island and Florida State,” McLeod said. “I was like, ‘Alright, this is going to be Florida State.’ I like what they did with the 7-4 guy they have now (senior Christ Koumadje). I feel like I can be better than he was, but we’re going to work.

“The atmosphere,” the 7-foot-3 center added of what separated the Seminoles. “I want to thank all the coaches that recruited me. Florida State had the best plan for me and I felt like it was the best decision.”

Naheem McLeod announces his decision. pic.twitter.com/4sAih02ivn

— Ed Morlock (@emor09) November 20, 2018

The plan for McLeod?

“Come in, learn, work,” he said. “Minimum two years. Try to go pro.”

McLeod, who has been in touch with Florida State for about three months, knew what he wanted during the recruiting process.

“A team that wins,” he said, listing his top priorities, “a great coaching staff and a program that believes in me.”

He is entering his third season as a starter. He earned First Team All Suburban One League American Conference honors as a junior while leading the Colonials to a 28-2 season. He was a bench player for most of his freshman year, but played a key role in PW’s District 1 championship win over Chester.

Plymouth Whitemarsh head coach Jim Donofrio talked about McLeod on the floor and off of it.

“He’s a big personality,” he said. “It’s one of those fun stories. We’ve been together for the whole time. He’s a very unique, very genuine kid. The most big-hearted kid and just fun-loving kid in the world who has come in here as a freshman and academically just had to learn how to work at it and still is. It’s just a fun story. It’s even bigger than basketball because he is literally a great example of how talented people are if you just stay with them. He’s just really growing up and he trusts like crazy. He just wants to have fun. He has an incredible work ethic, but every time I talk about Nah, I don’t even care to talk about basketball. He shares himself with the world and it’s fun.

“We’ve had the chance to know some great kids and some great talents. You don’t get a lot of this in high school — you do with the right guy, but (McLeod) — he’s probably the most popular guy I’ve ever seen among kids. The kids just love him. Little kids come to our clinics just to run around with him. He’s a big kid.”

McLeod joins a list of Colonials under Donofrio to play high-level college basketball. Chuck Moore (1997 graduate) went to Vanderbilt, John Salmons (1998) Miami, CJ Aiken (2010) St. Joseph’s and Jaylen Bond (2011) Texas.

“CJ Aiken is playing professionally and was the player of the year in the Philippines last year,” Donofrio said. “Jaylen Bond is in Dubai. Ronald Moore (2006 grad) is seven or eight years in Italy. That’s something to be really proud of — guys making money in the game. Any school would be proud to have one guy making money in the game. It’s fun to watch how the game has evolved to the world and these guys can chase it.

“Nah’s goal should be the biggest stage … He can play at any level.”

The W.H. Clark Fruit Company at the intersection of West Beaver and Acorn Streets during the 1940s. (Florida Southern College)

The orange tree has been a major part of Florida’s identity for centuries. From Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville and the Citrus Bowl in Orlando to the annual Orange Bowl in Miami, the impacts of the citrus industry are firmly planted within the state’s built environment. Unfortunately, it is an industry in perilous decline.

The Flora Beauty brand citrus crate label used by Jacksonville’s W.H. Clark Fruit Company circa 1930s. The W.H. Clark Fruit Company operated its packing house near the Beaver Street viaduct in the Rail Yard District between 1939 and 1975. (Florida Southern College)

The Rise and Decline

Orange groves dominate the landscape along the Ridge Scenic Byway between Haines City and Frostproof in Polk County.

Florida’s days as a citrus center date to the 16th century, when early Spanish explorers planted the first orange trees near St. Augustine. Following the Civil War, Jacksonville and Northeast Florida emerged as the state’s desired destination for orange groves, as well as packing houses and factories related to the industry. Following the devastating Great Freeze of 1894-95, the citrus belt shifted south, resulting in Central Florida’s becoming the state’s main area of citrus production.

The state’s citrus processing industry began in the 1910s, when a man named Claude Everett Street came to Florida after declining the nomination for governor of Colorado. Discovering that oranges and grapefruits could be mass-produced into juice, Street produced his first bottle of Street’s Grapefruit Juice in Haines City, Florida, becoming the first citrus juice processing manufacturer in America in 1915.

The industry received a significant boost during World War II, when a project funded by the Florida Citrus Commission led to the development of frozen concentrate. Concentrate created an opportunity for orange juice to be available year-round.

The former Southern Gold Citrus Products, Inc. plant in Orlando. Southern Gold produced frozen pure orange and grapefruit juice concentrates prior to its closing in 1985. Most of metropolitan Orlando’s citrus processing plants closed during the 1980s as suburban development replaced many of the region’s orange groves.

As the citrus industry grew in the following decades, so did the number of citrus processors, with as many as 56 in business by the 1980s. However, urban development, additional freezes and other factors have led to a loss of thousands of jobs and billions in economic impact in the past few decades.

According to the U.S. Census, between 1980 and 2020, Orlando’s population increased from 471,000 to 1.43 million residents as suburban development replaced thousands of acres once dedicated as groves. When 1977, 1985 and 1989 brought snow to certain parts of Florida, these historic freezes wiped out significant portions of the state’s citrus crops. As citrus groves shut down, so did the processing plants and the jobs they generated.

Ruins of the former Cargill Citro North America processing plant in Frostproof, FL. Cargill Citro North America ceased operations in 2007.

Processing plants have certain fixed costs that vary little whether they run 1,000 or 1 million boxes of fruit. With citrus production falling by more than half over the last decade, there’s simply not enough fruit to support juice production at the state’s iconic citrus plants. Seeking to stay competitive, citrus firms have consolidated since the 1980s, dropping the number of processors in the state to 31 by the 1990s. As the state’s population has increased to nearly 22 million, decline has continued with nearly 34,000 jobs in the industry eliminated between 2006 and 2016, according to a University of Florida study.

For years, the citrus industry has been the state’s second-largest industry behind tourism, producing more than 80% of the country’s orange juice, with processors providing more than $4.7 billion in annual economic impact. Nevertheless, the decline of the Florida mainstay quietly continues. According to Florida Citrus Mutual, only six major processing plants remain, collectively operated by four companies.

Here is a brief look at where your orange juice likely comes from:

Florida’s last major citrus processing plants

Tropicana Products, Inc. Bradenton, FL

Former Tropicana refrigerated box car in 2007, shortly after being donated to the Florida Gulf Coast Railroad Museum. (Harvey Henkelman)

Founded in 1947 by Anthony T. Rossi, Tropicana is the largest single buyer of Florida fruit, processing nearly 60 million boxes of fruit annually. Tropicana was recognized across the East Coast for its “Great White Juice Train,” which shipped finished goods via refrigerated boxcars from Florida to Kearny, New Jersey. The company has been owned by beverage giant PepsiCo since 1998.

Cutrale Citrus Juices USA Plants in Auburndale and Leesburg, FL

Minute Maid was established by John Fox in Plymouth, Florida, as the Florida Food Corp. in 1945. Renamed Minute Maid in 1949, and owned by Coca-Cola since 1960, Minute Maid has also marketed brands such as Hi-C and Five Alive. In 1996, Coca-Cola sold its remaining Florida juice processing plants in Plymouth, Auburndale and Leesburg to the U.S. subsidiary of Brazilian processor Cutrale. Continuing to make Minute Maid and Simply Orange products for Coca-Cola, the Auburndale plant is the second largest maker of juice products in the state.

Florida’s Natural Growers Lake Wales, FL

Florida’s Natural Growers, a cooperative owned by more than 1,100 Florida growers, is the country’s third-largest orange juice processor. The entity was established as a juice-canning operation known as Florida Citrus Canners Cooperative in 1933. In 1938, it began processing juice, eventually becoming Citrus World Inc., the parent company of Florida’s Natural, in 1969. For many years, Florida’s Natural was the only national orange juice brand that exclusively used fruit from Florida-based citrus growers. However, due to the declining Florida citrus crop, and Florida’s Natural no longer uses Florida oranges exclusively. Florida’s Natural orange juice now contains a blend of juice from Florida and Mexico.

Peace River Citrus Products, Inc. Plants in Arcadia and Bartow, FL

Independent and privately owned Peace River Citrus Products Inc. plants have a combined annual fruit processing capacity of 20 million boxes. Peace River supplies juices and byproducts to major national brands such as Tropicana and Minute Maid as well as private-label producers.

MOUNT PLYMOUTH — Potter Martin Cushman again will welcome people to his free “Mount Plymouth Holiday Home and Studio Tour,” opening his doors today through Sunday.

Cushman lives in an impossibly fantastic house, built by Sam Stoltz in 1929 as one of Stoltz’s “Plymouthonians,” which is distinguished by its steeply pitched roof, its extra-tall chimney, cathedral ceilings and floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace.

This year he will show off a rare piece of Stoltz’s furniture that has its own story.

He received a call from people in Orlando who had a table by Stoltz for sale. Cushman thought it was a side table, feared the price was high, but couldn’t pass up the first Stoltz piece he has seen offered in 10 years.

The man was the grandson of Sam Stoltz’s plasterer.

“It’s a 4-inch-thick library-size table with a wrought-iron base,” Cushman said. “It’s the same wrought-iron we have in the house. The problem was that this house is big tall-wise but not floor-wise. Plus it is really heavy.”

After trying it in different parts of the fairy-tale abode, Cushman placed it under the balcony, which looks out on the living room from the second floor.

Cushman’s studio, Florids Faience Pottery, is next to the house.

Cushman invited artists who are fun to talk to — jeweler Janet Crane, painters Sharon Repple and Kate Hall and pine-needle weaver Kaye Burlason, 81.

“Kaye is one of those great Cracker characters,” he said. “She lived on the [St. Johns] river in Astor when what you ate for dinner is what you caught. I have a lampshade she made and a hobby horse for my grandson. She uses scales from gar fish to make flowers.”

The tour will be hosted by the East Lake Historical Society, which will sign up new members and accept donations.

Cushman’s address is 30801 Ridgeview Ave. in Mount Plymouth but he suggests people try using Sorrento instead if they are using a GPS. He also suggests people take Brassie Drive to Ridgeview in order to avoid a dirt road.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. today, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

For more information, call 352-223-0959.

Mosaic Co.'s decision to move its headquarters from Plymouth to Florida left Minnesota business leaders to grapple with the loss of one of the state's prized Fortune 500 companies.

Mosaic is one of the world's largest fertilizer companies, mining potash and phosphate that it then processes into crop nutrients, with revenue exceeding $7.4 billion last year. Even though it maintains a relatively small presence in its soon-to-be-former home state of Minnesota, the decision is "disturbing," said Charlie Weaver, executive director of the Minnesota Business Partnership. "It's another blow to our ego in Minnesota," he said. "We're proud of our large Fortune 500 companies and the jobs they provide."

Mosaic said late Monday that it will move the corporate headquarters to the Tampa area to be closer to its Florida phosphate mines and for long-term cost savings.

A behemoth in the agriculture industry, Mosaic employs a modest 150 people in Minnesota, mostly at its head office with a few workers running a storage facility in Savage. That's a tiny fraction of the company's more than 15,800-person global workforce.

Minnetonka-based Cargill, one of the world's largest privately held companies, spun off its fertilizer operations in 2004 to create Mosaic but held onto a majority share. In 2011, Cargill divested its shares to free up cash for a Cargill family philanthropic effort without going public itself.

"They don't have a significant footprint here, but they have a deep legacy here," said Doug Loon, president of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. "We don't like to lose those types of businesses."

Mosaic company’s phosphate.

Mosaic has whittled the employee count at its corporate headquarters from 300 to about 150 in the past four years. The company is not providing details on the impact the move will have on its Minnesota workers and declined requests for an interview Tuesday.

The company employs about 3,600 people in Florida, according to numbers released in September. Most of Mosaic's workforce is in its potash and phosphate mines, which produce minerals for fertilizer. Its largest potash operations are in Saskatchewan while its biggest phosphate mines are in south-central Florida.

These Florida mines and processing facilities have come under Environmental Protection Agency scrutiny in recent years for air pollution, hazardous waste management practices and failing to notify local officials of a sinkhole that contaminated an aquifer.

Mosaic cites a number of reasons for moving to Florida. It operates a labor-intensive business, and all its physical processing facilities are outside of Minnesota. As a result of corporate layoffs, Mosaic has excess office space in Minnesota and Florida, the company said. The move will consolidate these functions under one roof and save money on real estate.

It will also save the company on travel expenses as a corporate headquarters in Florida gets leaders closer to the company's growing business in South America. In 2014, Mosaic bought Archer Daniels Midland Co.'s fertilizer distribution business in Brazil and Paraguay for $350 million. Earlier this year, it completed the purchase of Brazil-based Vale Fertilizantes for about $2.5 billion, its largest acquisition ever.

Ben Pratt, Mosaic's vice president of corporate affairs, said in an e-mail that the decision to move was primarily due to real estate and travel savings.

Weaver and Loon were quick to blame Minnesota's tax structure, which they say can be unfriendly toward businesses. Whether Mosaic is leaving for tax or regulatory or other reasons, it gives the impression that Minnesota is not a competitive place to locate or expand a business, Weaver said.

"Overall it's a wake-up call to policy leaders in the state that we cannot afford to become less competitive," Weaver said. "This is a global, highly competitive economy that we're in, and we can't afford to take these large employers for granted."

Since 2000, Minnesota has lost four companies from the Fortune 500 list through mergers and acquisitions. Eagan-based Northwest Airlines was acquired by Delta Air Lines in 2009. The St. Paul Companies merged with Travelers in 2004 and then moved several years later. Nash Finch was acquired by Michigan-based Spartan Stores in 2013. And in 2016, St. Jude Medical was acquired by Abbott Laboratories, though the local employment count has remained stable.

But other Minnesota companies — Ameriprise, Thrivent, Xcel Energy, C.H. Robinson, Ecolab, Land O'Lakes and Patterson — have grown onto the list since 2000.

Minnesota had 13 Fortune 500 companies in 2000. Even with Mosaic's departure, the state will have a net gain with 16 still on the list.

The state has lost headquarters recently for up-and-coming corporations Valspar, which was acquired by Sherwin Williams in 2017, and G&K Services, acquired by Cintas in 2017.

Staff writers Tom Meersman and Patrick Kennedy contributed to this report.

Kristen Leigh Painter • 612-673-4767

Minnesota is losing one of its Fortune 500 companies as The Mosaic Co. announced Monday it will move its headquarters from Plymouth, Minn., to Hillsborough County, Fla., which encompasses Tampa.

The fertilizer giant said it's still considering how many employees will be affected and when the move will happen. It did, however, say that its senior executives and related functions will be relocated.

In a news release, Mosaic (NYSE: MOS), which split off from Cargill Inc. in 2011, said it's making the move to be closer to its phosphate mines in Central Florida and for long-term cost savings.

“We believe locating our corporate office there will give us opportunities to amplify Mosaic’s presence and engage more closely with communities where we operate," President and CEO Joc O’Rourke said in the release. "With the cost savings we expect to achieve and the closer proximity to our Mosaic Fertilizantes business in Brazil, this move will drive improved efficiency and good value.”

Mosaic is Minnesota's 14th largest public company with $7.4 billion in annual sales, according to Business Journal research. It is also one of 18 Fortune 500 companies in the state. (It ranked 377 last year.)

View Slideshow 17 photos

A look at which Minnesota companies made the most recent Fortune 500 list.

Mosaic didn't immediately respond to questions about its Plymouth workforce. It leases space in Atria Corporate Center in Plymouth. When it originally moved into the building in the mid-2000s it leased around 50,000 square feet.

Mosaic said in the news release it has excess capacity in Plymouth, as well as other locations in Florida.

“We will execute this move with as little disruption as possible and with sensitivity to our employees’ personal situations,” O’Rourke added in the press release. “Mosaic is fortunate to have a deeply talented workforce, and we fully intend to maintain that competitive advantage.”

Minnesota's Top 75 Public Companies

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