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DiGiorgio corporation was a fruit-growing corporation and eventual conglomerate in the 20th century. Once a vast company, owning much of California's central valley farm land, and multibillion-dollar corporation, a massive restructuring in the 1990s limited its breadth. DiGiorgio distributed food products under its White Rose brand name to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Joseph DiGiorgio (born Giuseppe DiGiorgio, 1874 in Cefalu, Sicily) immigrated to the United States in 1888, becoming a middleman for fruit sales. He founded the Baltimore Fruit Exchange in 1904 on borrowed money and eventually owned fruit exchanges in several major regions of the east coast. In 1911 was able to purchase the Earl Fruit Company, a California shipper to integrate further in the produce chain. In 1919, he bought 5845 acres of land outside Arvin in California's San Joaquin Valley. A year later, DiGiorgio founded DiGiorgio Fruit Co. His success came when he obtained water for the arid California land by drilling wells hundreds of feet deep. By 1929, just ten years after his original land purchase, DiGiorgio's company was the largest fruit-packing plant in the nation. [1]
The produce grown on the west coast became the main focus of the business. The end of Prohibition in 1933 saw DiGiorgio venture into the winery business, forming Del Vista Wine Co and bulk wine was shipped to the east coast in large tank cars. DiGiorgio was the largest wine producer in the country at that time though wine became a minor part of the corporation later. By 1946, the company occupied 33 square miles (85 km2) of the San Joaquin Valley as well as land as far north as Washington state, in Marysville and south to the Mexican border. It was the largest grape, plum and pear grower in the world. Its revenue rose from $5.7 million in 1938 to $18.2 million in 1946, with DiGiorgio and his family owning 59% of the stock.
The shrinking and increasingly saline water table eventually forced DiGiorgio Co. to request federal irrigation water. However, it was disqualified by the US Bureau of Reclamation, which restricted its services to owners of less than 160 acres (0.65 km2).
Ernesto Galarza also targeted DiGiorgio Co., organizing a strike from 1947 to 1950 and a boycott of the company's products. The strike lasted 30 months. [2] DiGiorgio Co. eventually signed a contract with the United Farm Workers in 1966, after another long and highly publicized strike led by Cesar Chavez. [3]
Joseph DiGiorgio died in 1951 and his nephew, Robert DiGiorgio rose to leadership, becoming president in 1962. By 1967, the agricultural portion of the business accounted for less than 2% of revenue and "Fruit" was dropped from the company's name. Its acquisitions included S&W Fine Foods, TreeSweet, White Rose, Serv-A-Portion (distributor of condiment packets for fast food), Los Angeles Drugs, Peter Carando Inc (Italian-style meats), Sun Aire Airlines and Las Plumas Lumber Co. DiGiorgio also became invested in land development across California. In 1965, assets had reached $82.9 million and sales had passed $100 million. DiGiorgio Co. ranked 9th in rate of sales growth in the nation at that time. Its products and services ranged from grocery distribution, fruit juices, campers, lumber, housing components, pharmaceuticals, wine and, of course, fruit. Modest exports were mainly to Europe and Japan.
By the late 1970s, DiGiorgio's sales had reached $1 billion. The company was seen to lack focus due to the large scope of operations and the recession of the 1970s had negative effects on the camper and lumber businesses. Peripheral companies were sold off. Robert Di Giorgio eventually stepped down as chairperson in 1982 turning the company over to Peter Scott, former Chief Financial Officer.
The late '80s saw hostile takeover attempts by the Gabelli Group Inc. Restructuring began in 1984. Sun Aire was sold to SkyWest Airlines; TreeSweet, Allied Distributing Co., Los Angeles Drug Co., Serv-A-Portion and much of the real estate outside of Borrego Springs was sold as well. However, in doing so, it left DiGiorgio only two lines of business: food processing/distribution and building materials. In 1988, management enacted a $70 million, $21-a-share buyback offer. Trial lawyer and New Jersey native Arther Goldberg attempted to gain control of the remains, interested in the White Rose Company. By 1990 he had taken control of the company, moving the headquarters from San Francisco to Somerset, New Jersey. All but White Rose division were eventually sold off by 1994.
Di Giorgio Elementary School founded in 1897 and is the oldest school in Arvin. Following the burning of the original schoolhouse, agricultural entrepreneur Joseph Di Giorgio would donate $150,000 and 40 acres of land on Christmas Eve, 1945. Rockpile School would then change its name to Di Giorgio School to honor the gift.
The White Rose Company, successor to the Di Giorgio Company, changed hands and finally declared bankruptcy in late 2013.
However, DiGiorgio a town in the California San Joaquin Valley still bears the name of the once vast farming empire. The DiGiorgio family donated money to Cefalu, Sicily, which contains a "DiGiorgio Technical Institute" and "Plaza DiGiorgio".[ citation needed ]
Arvin is a city in Kern County, California. Arvin is located 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Bakersfield, at an elevation of 449 feet (137 m). As of the 2010 census, the population was 19,304, up from 12,956 at the 2000 census.
Zinfandel is a variety of black-skinned wine grape. The variety is grown in over 10 percent of California vineyards. DNA analysis has revealed that it is genetically equivalent to the Croatian grapes Crljenak Kaštelanski and Tribidrag, as well as to the Primitivo variety traditionally grown in Apulia, Italy, where it was introduced in the 18th century, and Kratošija in Montenegro. The grape found its way to the United States in the mid-19th century, where it became known by variations of a name applied to a different grape, likely "Zierfandler" from Austria.
The San Joaquin Valley is the southern half of California's Central Valley. Famed as a major breadbasket, the San Joaquin Valley is an important source of food, producing a significant part of California's agricultural output.
The J.M. Smucker Company, also known as Smuckers, is an American manufacturer of food and beverage products. Headquartered in Orrville, Ohio, the company was founded in 1897 as a maker of apple butter. J.M. Smucker currently has three major business units: consumer foods, pet foods, and coffee. Its flagship brand, Smucker's, produces fruit preserves, peanut butter, syrups, frozen crustless sandwiches, and ice cream toppings.
Grenache or Garnacha is one of the most widely planted red wine grape varieties in the world. It ripens late, so it needs hot, dry conditions such as those found in Spain, where the grape is believed to have originated. It is also grown in the Italian island of Sardinia, the south of France, Australia, and California's Monterey AVA, Paso Robles, Santa Barbara County and San Joaquin Valley.
Harry and David, LLC is an American-based premium food and gift producer and retailer. The company sells its products through direct mail, online, corporate gifting, and in their flagship location in Medford, Oregon, and operates the brands Harry & David, Wolferman's, and Vital Choice.
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Beatrice Foods Company was a major American food conglomerate founded in 1894. One of the best-known food processing companies in the U.S., Beatrice owned many well-known brands such as Tropicana, Krispy Kreme, Jolly Rancher, Orville Redenbacher's, Swiss Miss, Peter Pan, Avis, Milk Duds, Samsonite, Playtex, La Choy and Dannon.
The economy of the State of California is the largest in the United States, with a $3.89 trillion gross state product (GSP) as of 2023. It is the largest sub-national economy in the world. If California were a sovereign nation (2024), it would rank in terms of nominal GDP as the world's fifth largest economy, ahead of both India and the United Kingdom. Additionally, California's Silicon Valley is home to some of the world's most valuable technology companies, including Apple, Alphabet, and Nvidia. In total, 11 of the Fortune 100 companies and 53 of the Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in California.
Gristedes is a New York City–based chain of supermarkets. It serves a mostly urban customer base.
Alphonse A. Burnand Jr. was an American sailor who competed in the 1932 Summer Olympics.
California wine production has a rich viticulture history since 1680 when Spanish Jesuit missionaries planted Vitis vinifera vines native to the Mediterranean region in their established missions to produce wine for religious services. In the 1770s, Spanish missionaries continued the practice under the direction of the Father Junípero Serra who planted California's first vineyard at Mission San Juan Capistrano.
Lynda Rae Resnick is an American billionaire businesswoman. Resnick is married to Stewart Resnick, who is her business partner, and through their holding company, The Wonderful Company, they own the POM Wonderful and Fiji Water brands, Wonderful Pistachios and Almonds, Wonderful Halos, Wonderful Seedless Lemons, JUSTIN Wines, Landmark Wines, JNSQ Wines, and the Teleflora floral wire service company.
Ernesto Galarza was a Mexican-American labor organizer, activist, professor, poet, writer, storyteller, and a key figure in the history of immigrant farmworker organization in California. He had a dream of giving better living conditions to working-class Latinos.
The Mountain View Oil Field is a large, mature, but still-productive oil field in Kern County, California, in the United States, in the extreme southern part of the San Joaquin Valley southeast of Bakersfield. It underlies the town of Arvin, as well as some smaller agricultural communities. The field is spread out across a large area, covering just under 8 square miles (21 km2), with wells and storage facilities widely dispersed throughout the area, scattered among working agricultural fields of broccoli and carrots as well as citrus orchards. Discovered in 1933, it has produced over 90 million barrels (14,000,000 m3) of oil in its lifetime, and although declining in production is one of the few inland California fields in which new oil is still being discovered.
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The California agricultural strikes of 1933 were a series of strikes by mostly Mexican and Filipino agricultural workers throughout the San Joaquin Valley. More than 47,500 workers were involved in the wave of approximately 30 strikes from 1931 to 1941. Twenty-four of the strikes, involving 37,500 union members, were led by the Cannery and Agricultural Workers' Industrial Union (CAWIU). The strikes are grouped together because most of them were organized by the CAWIU. Strike actions began in August among cherry, grape, peach, pear, sugar beet, and tomato workers, and culminated in a number of strikes against cotton growers in the San Joaquin Valley in October. The cotton strikes involved the largest number of workers. Sources vary as to numbers involved in the cotton strikes, with some sources claiming 18,000 workers and others just 12,000 workers, 80% of whom were Mexican.
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Jessie Lopez De La Cruz was a Chicano American farm worker, the first female recruiter for the UFW, an organizer and participant in UFW strikes, a community organizer, a working mother, and a delegate to the 1972 Democratic National Convention. She ran the first UFW Hiring Hall, was an adviser to the California Commission on the Status of Women, and the secretary treasurer of National Land for People. Lopez-De La Cruz is also known for her work banning the short-handled hoe, her work educating fellow farm workers, her work promoting co-op farming, and her commitment to fighting injustice for the working poor.
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