A VIBRANT HISTORY

Jerry believed he was playing with “house money” when he started Florida Food Products in 1954. Having served with distinction* in World War II, Jerry returned to Florida and bought Sunshine Packers of Eustis, Florida. Sunshine, like many others of the time, “hot packed” orange juice in cans.

But he believed that frozen concentrate was the future, so he bought a single-stage evaporator in Georgia and moved it to Eustis. This process concentrated juice at a low temperature—different from others that worked in less time at higher heat.

During the Freeze of ’57, Jerry and team took a calculated risk, processing every frozen orange he could find and storing the concentrate. When the U.S.D.A. updated its regulations to include frozen oranges, they had a goldmine waiting in storage, and Florida Food Products was the first to can orange juice concentrate from these oranges.

Orange juice is a “winter business.” Jerry’s workforce had plenty of work between November and May. But when summer came, he had little for them to do, and he didn’t want to lose them.

To keep things rolling into the summer of 1968, the company used an opportunity at a global carbonated beverage bottler to test canning their product for the first time.

Once we understood the science of putting a low-pH drink in a steel can, we became the largest contract carbonated beverage canner east of the Mississippi—with the plant in Eustis, as well as Birmingham, Charlotte, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, and Puerto Rico*.

In addition to the global brand, other brands included our Fresca brand (which we owned for 30 years), Chugalug*, and Chet* (for Winn-Dixie), Kroger, Howard Johnson’s, and anybody that wanted their own name brand.

Running all these plants became capital-intensive, and Jerry understood that, to keep growing to meet the demand for canned soda, he would need more capital, or he could sell all but two plants to Consolidated Foods. He kept Eustis and the very profitable Puerto Rico plants.

He used the money from the sale to Consolidated to increase soda canning and production, but encountered a series of challenges at the Puerto Rico plant, and sold that, too. Only the small orange juice concentrate plant remained.

But Jerry bet on the company and innovated again.

Winter freezes throughout the 1980s destroyed the regional supply of oranges. While many in the industry succumbed to the headwinds, our team found ways to keep forging ahead with high-demand products that filled specific niches.

We pivoted to other fruits and vegetables, becoming a leader in supplying natural ingredients like aloe vera concentrates for suntan lotion and cosmetics. Even though other companies would dilute their aloe vera, Jerry refused. It’s why key brand relationships, like L’Oreal Paris, remained customers when their competitors went elsewhere.

We leased our cold storage to keep operations running, while we focused on building our R&D capabilities, which included beets, celery, onions, cucumbers, and bitter watermelon.

This led to a few innovations, including the first vegetable juice concentrate and a variety of derivatives, including freeze-dried powder, pulp, and fiber. Many of these can be used as natural sweeteners or coloring and flavoring agents in juice, or in health foods, soups, and baked goods. Our bitter watermelon emulsion turned out to be a natural pesticide that helped save the U.S. corn industry at the time by tackling the corn rootworm beetle problem.

Jerry passed the torch to his sons, Jerry and Tom, in 1990*, and we continued to find new markets all over the world for our natural ingredients—powders, juices, emulsions, and concentrates.

Under their watch, we grew our innovation capabilities and leveraged our strong relationships in the industry to keep growing. This included opening a new juice and concentrates processing plant for fruits and vegetables in 1995 in Pasco, Washington; modernizing our vacuum-drying capabilities; and upgrading our research and development center to further drive innovation.

When Jerry and Tom learned that vegetables deemed “too ugly” for the grocery store would get thrown out by farmers, we saw a market opportunity and used those ingredients in juices like V8 Splash.

Investments back into the business made us more competitive in the near term, enabling us to add capacity as an ingredient supplier for juices, salad dressings, sauces, and flavorings. And it solidified our mission as trailblazers in the industry.

At the turn of the millennium, we used emerging science from Florida State University to develop natural nitrate from celery. And before too long, we were processing more celery than anyone else in the United States.

From changes in ownership to acquisitions that have increased our capabilities exponentially, we’ve continued to innovate, add value to our relationships, and keep our integrity intact.

Owners with Vision

Kainos Capital acquired us in 2016, which led to a number of significant projects, like expanding production capabilities, improving efficiencies, and ensuring and standardizing product quality.

Two years later, in 2018, MidOcean Partners, a middle-market private equity group, took over from Kainos, setting us on a new trajectory of expansion.

In 2021, MidOcean sold a majority stake to Ardian, an entrepreneurial private investment group. With these two foundational partners providing a solid financial base, we accelerated our product innovation, research and development, and portfolio expansion. And this led to an even wider variety of natural ingredient, clean label solutions for food manufacturers across the beverage, foodservice, sports and pet nutrition segments.

Expanding Our Footprint

In 2020, we acquired Amelia Bay, LLC, a leading provider of fresh-brewed tea extracts, coffee extracts, and botanicals.

Not long after, also in 2021, we acquired Comax Flavors, a flavor solutions manufacturer and supplier to food and beverage brands. In addition to manufacturing facilities, Comax also expanded our R&D capabilities.

Less than a year later, in 2022, we expanded into functional ingredients and value-added tea products by purchasing T-Bev, a leading provider of natural, functional ingredients to the functional and beverage markets.

Also in 2022, we opened a new Innovation Center at our facility in Eustis, FL, which includes a microbiology lab, a dry products preparation room, a culinary kitchen, a sample lab, and a customer demo space.

And practically before we cut the ribbon on that new facility, we completed the purchase of Javo, a clean label coffee, tea, and botanicals specialty manufacturer that produces the best-tasting cold brew coffee anywhere, made using a patented single-pass process that preserves the coffee’s origin. It’s a process that uses just two ingredients: coffee and filtered water. And because we extract our cold brew at cooler temperatures, we’re able to capture more taste and more aroma for a smoother, fuller coffee experience.

The addition of Javo added CPG food and beverage brands and food service to our already industry-leading offerings. We also gained redundant manufacturing capabilities in Vista, CA, and Indianapolis, IN.

After more than 70 years as “Florida Food Products” or “FFP,” and after so much growth and expansion, research, innovation, trailblazing, and leadership, it became clear to us that our company had become something more than a Florida-based food products company. We’d added capabilities across the United States. And we’d built a vast, integrated product portfolio unlike any in the industry—one that delivers on clean label natural flavors.

So we changed our name to “Vibrant Ingredients.”

Vibrant is who we are—it’s who we’ve always been. It’s what we do. And it’s how we do it. We connect people with real, honest-to-goodness ingredients that lay the foundation for extraordinary food and beverage experiences. We use proprietary, state-of-the-art processes and technology to deliver for our customers, and we continue to innovate.

Throughout our history, we’ve provided our food and beverage manufacturer customers and their consumers with exceptional, clean label ingredients, which include the world’s best-tasting cold brew coffee, pioneering natural meat cure, and an infinite number of natural ingredients. We also provide a value-add that none of our competitors can match—expert innovation, collaboration, and speed to market. That’s why we changed our name. And that’s why Vibrant Ingredients—and everything we make—is Purely Better™.

Also in 2025, we unveiled a new Spinning Cone Column (SCC) at our Indianapolis manufacturing facility. Our third SCC system enhances and emphasizes our geographic diversification, supply chain continuity, and capacity growth. And it strengthens our ability to deliver superior quality ingredients with speed, consistency, and care, making clean label ingredients more accessible across the U.S. and internationally.

Vibrant Innovation Center Opens

Located in Cranbury, New Jersey, the Vibrant Innovation Center is 11,000 square feet of space dedicated to “what’s next.” Here, our flavor chemists work directly with customers to explore new flavor directions and test them in real applications. It’s a hands-on environment purpose-built to accelerate product development via rapid prototyping, technical collaboration, and turnkey solutions for beverage and food applications across retail and foodservice. From bench to market and From Formula to Final Sip®, this is where flavor concepts become finished products.