The story
In 1898, the Atlantic Land and Improvement Company was founded as a subsidiary of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and was the holding company for its real estate division. In February 1960, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (which later became part of CSX Transportation) spun-off the Atlantic Land and Improvement Company into the Alico Land Development Company, which was then renamed Alico in 1974. Alico is an acronym for Atlantic Land and Improvement Company.
In 1961, Ben Hill Griffin, Jr. was named to the board of directors of Alico, Inc, which then became a publicly traded corporation engaged in citrus fruit, sugarcane, and sod production, cattle ranching and forestry. Griffin acquired a majority of the outstanding stock of Alico in 1972, and became chairman of its board of directors in 1973.
Griffin, Jr. died in 1990 and was succeeded by his son Ben Hill Griffin III. Griffin III went on to donate 760 acres of the company's land in South Fort Myers to the state for the construction of Florida Gulf Coast University. The road leading to the university and one of its academic halls are named for Griffin, and its basketball arena is named Alico Arena.
Alico is an agribusiness in citrus, conservation, and rural-based commodities.
In 2014, Alico purchased three Florida citrus producers, making Alico one of the United States' largest citrus producers. The $363 million deal added 28,000 acres of citrus groves to Alico's portfolio.
Alico sold 5,534 acres of property to the State of Florida under the Florida Forever program in 2019, furthering the state's Devils Garden conservation project. Florida's Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection noted the land sale would protect water resources and wildlife, including the Florida panther, and that in addition to the land being managed well, it has been preserved by Alico in "as close to a historic state as possible." In May 2020, the State of Florida entered into an option agreement to purchase another 10,684 acres of Alico property for the Florida Forever program. The land sale was praised by numerous environmental organizations for providing important protections for sensitive lands, water, and wildlife habitats for the Florida panther.
The company posted $4.4 million in profits for the first half of the 2020 Fiscal Year and harvested 5.61 million boxes of citrus. Alico also purchased its first grove in five years, acquiring 334 acres in Polk County. The company said "The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has had minimal impact on the company's harvest and business operations."
From Wikipedia’s article on Alico, Inc., shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7