VitaPakt Citrus Products has received approval from the City of Lindsay to add 4.3 acres of land to their plant site site in town in order to expand its operations – a move that will add from 22 to 40 jobs says a city staff report.
Speaking at the August 13 city council meeting, Aaron Avedian, Senior VP of Operations for the Covina-based firm said the expansion would be phased over a 5 year period or longer.
Already the company has pulled permits to add the foundation for additional storage tanks on their growing industrial campus. The company is adding 4.3 acres to 14.2 acres it already owns. The city approved a rezoning of the 4.3 acres from residential use to light industrial with a second reading of a mitigated negative declaration August 27. The acreage had been an abandoned citrus grove.
VitaPakt has been growing rapidly lately acquiring the next door California Citrus Producers Inc (CCPI) in Lindsay last November and constructing a second operation in Tulare last December processing citrus juice.That operation carries out the debittering of navel juice offering all products in bulk tankers, drums and pails.
Phased Improvements In Lindsay
According to the city staff report:
Phased improvements proposed throughout the overall Lindsay site include a warehouse facility proposed for the northernmost parcel. The northernmost parcel project would include the following:
– Dry storage facilities totaling 24,300 square feet.
– A freezer of approximately 30,400 square feet.
– An office of approximately 7,520 square feet.
A second area of site improvement would be located on the developed, middle parcel. On it are proposed an 8,800 square foot dehydrator, a dry storage facility of 2,200 square feet, and a dry storage and milling facility of 9,450 square feet.
Other site-related improvements would include an evaporative tower and conveyors to be located on the southernmost parcel as a phase 1 development. The proposed tower would comply with the height restrictions of the IL zoning district.
The southern and middle parcel are already substantially developed for light industrial use and the construction of an evaporative tower and conveyors, which require no variance approvals, would be considered accessory structures and uses located on the same site. Throughout the project some demolition or removal of obsolete items would be performed along with site improvements.
The enterprise that was to become VitaPakt Citrus Product Co. began operations in 1949 across the driveway of a Covina, California fresh citrus packing house. In 1957 the company was reorganized as VitaPakt Citrus Products Co. and quickly became the major supplier of fresh, Not From Concentrate, chilled orange juice to retail markets in California, Arizona and Nevada.
Beyond Juice
Seeing opportunities beyond juice, the company began making citrus purees for bakery applications. This was the seed to one of the most diversified citrus ingredient businesses in the world.
In 1997, VitaPakt made a strategic shift away from retail products and committed its resources entirely to the production of high quality citrus ingredients for the food and beverage industries.
Today VitaPakt offers one of the broadest choices of citrus products manufactured by one company. Their line-up of products include single strength, Not From Concentrate juices, all natural juice concentrates, beverage bases, purees, and numerous specialty citrus peel products. The peel products range from dried and milled granules for the spice, tea, and brewing industries to pasteurized and frozen shredded peel for preserving and bakery applications. The sugared lemon and orange flavedos, signature of VitaPakt, have become mainstay ingredients in the baking industry.
Bakers use orange flavoring like marmalade for example to make pastries, cakes and cookies.( see pic)
VitaPakt has also been certified organic processor for over 15 years.
Since 2001, VitaPakt has become a dominant processor of California grown Kiwi.