Partnerships That Stand the Test of Time

R. C. Stevens

Partnerships are worth their weight in gold (or, in this case, oranges) for the team at R. C. Stevens. One of the first markets R. C. Stevens worked in goes back to the 1930s and ‘40s during the rise of frozen orange juice concentrate production in Florida. Raymond C. Stevens, the company’s founder, had excellent relationships with citrus owners, which resulted in major industrial design-build work in the citrus canning, processing, and bulk storage industry. That work included the first commercially operating citrus concentrate plant for Vacuum Foods (later Minute Maid, now Coca-Cola North America) and Kraft Foods.

Winner of the 2022 ABC Award of Merit - Industrial $10-$20 million for the Central Florida Chapter.

Today, R. C. Stevens continues to work with several of those same companies that have stood the test of time and have proven loyal over several decades. Most recently, what started out as Project Eagle included two long-time clients, Peace River Citrus and Coca-Cola North America. Knowing the processes and management of both companies, and their long project history, made R. C. Stevens an excellent designbuild contractor of choice.

Peace River’s world-class citrus operations at the Bartow, Florida, plant has the capacity to produce up to 8 million boxes of grapefruit, mandarin, and orange varieties annually for concentrate and pasteurized juice products. Along with Coca-Cola’s market strategy and capabilities, they continue their decades-long partnership with a new facility that manufactures select juice beverages, including Minute Maid, for food service customers.

R. C. Stevens provided pre-construction, design-build, construction, and project management services for their new 360,000-square-foot juice beverage production facility. Construction turnaround was 24 months, with completion in December 2021. The facility includes loading docks, cold storage, freezer, ambient/dry storage, palletizing area, process lines, ammonia compressors, electrical room, blending processing area, water treatment, tank farm, boiler, lab, control room, secured employee entrance, and parking.

R. C. Stevens provided pre-construction, design-build, construction, and project management services for Peace River and Coca-Cola’s new 360,000-square-foot juice beverage production facility.