Citrus Systems, Inc. was founded in 1985 by Thomas E. Boehland, its current president.
- As a distributor of Bag-In-Box juice bases and drinks, Citrus Systems, Inc ’s. initial market focused on the hospitality trade. This soon shifted to the health care industry. The Bag-In-Box product revolutionized juice in health care facilities by saving them both time and money.
- In 1986 Citrus Systems, Inc. began producing its own products at a local dairy. Production expanded to include a wide range of 100% juice concentrates in the shelf stable Bag -In-Box packaging.
- Citrus Systems, Inc. was a pioneer in processing 100% Orange Juice Concentrate that was shelf stable for a minimum of 90 days.
- Citrus Systems, Inc. moved to an 8,000 square foot plant in Farmington, MN. This move enabled the company to further expand its product line and began to bottle private labeled juices for other local dairies. The installation of a portion cup filler for 4 oz. and 6 oz. juices soon followed. As sales increased the company soon outgrew this building and sought out a larger facility with more production capacity.
- In April, 1991 construction began on a 33,000 square foot building located in Hopkins, MN that would greatly increase production needs. The following September, production started at the new location with five employees. In the beginning there was 2,200-gallons of pasteurized holding capacity, versus 800 gallons in the Farmington plant. As business grew, fillers, tanks and other equipment were replaced and acquired to handle the growth.
- In 1994, Citrus Systems, Inc. was the first to install a half -gallon pour spout paper carton filler in the upper mid -west. In addition a 4,000 square foot freezer was added to accommodate the growing portion cup line. The Bag-In-Box juice portion of the business still thrived, but Citrus Systems, Inc. shifted more focus to private label packaging for the dairy, grocery and institutional trades. As the company continued to grow there was an increasing need for more space and production capacity to handle our customers needs.
- The summer of 2002 brought the realization that the current pl ant was too small to handle growth and opportunities that lay ahead. The future sight of the new plant was decided upon in November 2002 and construction began in June 2003.
- Citrus Systems, Inc. has gone through many changes over the past twelve years . After five and a half months of construction; the new 71,000 square foot plant went online November 17, 2003. The company now has 30 dedicated employees, 45,000 gallons of pasteurized holding capacity, the latest processing technology and the ability to more than triple it s annual volume. The company has established relationships with a multitude of customers including Kemps, Nash Finch, Schroeder Co., Super One, Coborns, US Foodservice, Polka Dot Dairy, Cass Clay Creamery and the states of Minnesota, Colorado, Washington, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
- Citrus Systems, Inc. has always been and will continue to be committed to producing the highest quality products with the highest level of service for many years to come.
- In 2013 Citrus Systems Inc. began construction on a new 135,000 square foot state of the art beverage processing & packaging facility. The new home of Citrus Systems Inc. houses two pasteurizers, 6 packaging lines, 18 blending and storage vessels with over 70,000 gals of capacity & over 28,000 square feet of temperature controlled storage. The new facility came on line in December of 2013 and will provide a platform for growth for years to come.
