The new Sunkist Headquarters building as seen from Magic Mountain Parkway and The Old Road in Valencia.
By Jana Adkins, The Signal August 13, 2014
The grower-owned citrus marketing cooperative purchased the Santa Clarita building in late August
Sunkist Growers, the 120-year old grower-owned citrus marketing cooperative, announced Tuesday that it is now planning its move into the Valencia office building from Sherman Oaks in September.
The cooperative announced it was relocating its headquarters to Santa Clarita last September. It had acquired the building on Entertainment Drive, off Magic Mountain Parkway at the entrance to Six Flags Magic Mountain last August 23, 2013.
Sunkist’s sister cooperative, Fruit Growers Supply Company, is also moving into the same location.
The move into the 50,000 square feet of space will occur in phases.
“This is an exciting time for Sunkist Growers,” said Sunkist President and CEO Russell Hanlin.
“In the past few years, we have made significant advances on key strategic initiatives to position Sunkist for long-term growth and profitability – and the relocation of our headquarters is part of that strategy,” Hanlin said. “We look forward to welcoming our growers, customers, licensees and other business partners to our new home in Valencia.”
The new building is located nearer to Sunkist’s multiple growing areas and will allow the company to keep its current employee group intact, said a spokesperson for the company.
The Santa Clarita Economic Development Corp. worked extensively with Sunkist for a couple years or more prior to its decision to relocate to Santa Clarita.
The SCVEDC identified four properties for them to look at, and introduced the company to the city, county and broker, making for a team effort between the parties to bring the growing cooperative to the region.
The fact that the company selected Santa Clarita for its new headquarters was pronounced to be very good news that a company of its caliber selected the area, said Holly Schroeder, president and CEO of the SCVEDC last fall.
A leading international supplier of fresh fruit, Sunkist was founded in 1893, and now its family of farms offers more than 40 fresh citrus varieties.
There are thousands of grower members in California and Arizona, the company reported.
Although Sunkist is a not-for-profit company, it is a billion-dollar-a-year organization.
