Lone Star Citrus Growers

What Lone Star Citrus Growers does

Lone Star Citrus Growers is a privately held, vertically integrated citrus operator founded in 2007 and headquartered in Mission, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley. The company grows, packs, markets, juices, and ships Texas red grapefruit and sweet oranges under the registered Rio Star®, Ruby-Sweet®, and Flame trademarked categories, with seasonal operations running October through May and distribution across the United States and Canada. Its core products are Texas red grapefruit (Rio Star, Ruby-Sweet, Flame) and Texas sweet oranges (early/mid-season, Navel, and Valencia), sold in a range of pack sizes — trays, 40lb cartons, gift cartons, master cartons, bulk RPCs, and bins — through direct B2B sales to commercial retailers and wholesale produce distributors, plus a consumer-facing Winter Sweetz house brand.

The company's technology stack centers on a proprietary accounting and traceability system that assigns each load of fruit an identity at field-truck arrival and maintains it through washing, grading, sizing, and packing, with print-and-apply PLU barcodes enabling item-level traceability for food-safety recalls. A run-and-catch processing system catches fruit in large plastic bins off the sizer/grader rather than pre-packing, allowing custom-packed retailer orders built from sales-team customer specifications and packed within 24 hours of scheduled ship time. The Mission facility includes degreening rooms, washing/processing lines, waxing machines, grading/sorting systems, and 15 docking stations.

Lone Star makes money through B2B sales of fresh citrus — primarily undifferentiated bulk and packed fruit by carton/bin to retailers and produce distributors — augmented by higher-margin Winter Sweetz branded consumer product. GTM is sales-led: a small sales team works directly with retail accounts, supported by a dedicated B2B trade portal (trade.lonestarcitrus.com), while consumer marketing is driven through lonestarcitrus.com and wintersweetz.com and industry-association participation. The company is founder/family-controlled (Jud Flowers, T.J. Flowers, April Flowers, Michael Flowers among ~8 core team members), independently owned with no disclosed institutional funding.

Name

Lone Star Citrus Growers

Legal name

Lone Star Citrus Growers

Website

https://lonestarcitrus.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Lone Star Citrus Growers is a privately held, vertically integrated Texas grower, packer, marketer, juicer, and shipper of red grapefruit and sweet oranges, selling to commercial retailers and produce distributors across the US and Canada under the Rio Star, Ruby-Sweet, and Winter Sweetz brands.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Fresh Citrus Production and Packing

NAICS

Citrus (except Orange) Groves (11132), Orange Groves (111310)

SIC

Agricultural Production-Crops (100)

akta.pro primary industry

Pome Fruit Orchards (Apples, Pears, Quinces) (AFAGACAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Citrus Orchards (Oranges, Lemons, Limes, Grapefruit) (AFAGACAA), Juice Concentrates & Fruit Bases (AFAFAGAB)

Keywords

• Fresh citrus production
• Red grapefruit packing
• Sweet orange shipping
• Citrus traceability systems
• Texas citrus growing

Headquarters

HQ city

Mission

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Operations, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Fresh Citrus Product Sales: Revenue generated through the sale of fresh Texas red grapefruit and oranges as a vertically integrated grower, packer, marketer, juicer and shipper. Products sold in various pack sizes including cartons, bags, bins and trays to commercial retailers. Shipments occur October through May to customers throughout the United States and Canada.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Lone Star Citrus Growers is a vertically integrated grower, packer, marketer, juicer, and shipper of Texas red grapefruit and sweet oranges, operating a state-of-the-art processing plant in Mission, Texas. It sells fresh citrus in multiple pack sizes (trays, cartons, bags, bins) to commercial retailers and produce distributors across the United States and Canada on a seasonal basis (October through May), using proprietary traceability and a custom "run and catch" packing system.

Product overview

Lone Star Citrus Growers is a vertically integrated citrus operation offering a unified portfolio of Texas-grown products centered on red grapefruit and sweet oranges. The core products are organized around two main fruit categories: Texas Red Grapefruit (in Rio Star, Ruby-Sweet, and Flame trademarked varieties) and Texas Sweet Oranges (including Early/Mid-Season, Navel, and Valencia varieties). These are complemented by the Winter Sweetz consumer brand and various pack size options (trays, cartons, bins) for retail and foodservice customers. The company provides end-to-end services from growing through shipping, with proprietary traceability software and a 'run and catch' custom packing system.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Winter Sweetz: House brand developed and launched by Lone Star Citrus Growers for their citrus products.

Products and services

• Texas Red Grapefruit Sweet, juicy, tree-ripened Texas red grapefruit available in trademarked Rio Star (deepest red), Ruby-Sweet, and Flame varieties, sold to commercial retailers and produce distributors during the October through May citrus season.
• Texas Sweet Oranges Tree-ripened Texas sweet oranges including Early/Mid-Season varieties (Marrs, Hamlins, Pineapples), Navel oranges, and Valencia oranges, shipped to commercial customers from October through May.
• Pack Sizes and Packaging Configurations Multiple pack size options for Texas citrus, including trays (1/4 mini tray, Display Top Tray), bulk options (RPC Bulk, RPC Bag), cartons (40lb, 1/2 gift carton, various master cartons), and bins (Graphic, Kraft, Texas Citrus bins in multiple sizes), configured per customer specification through the run-and-catch packing system.
• Winter Sweetz House Brand Lone Star Citrus Growers' consumer-facing house brand for Texas red grapefruit and sweet oranges, featuring trademarked Rio Star, Ruby-Sweet, and Flame grapefruit varieties and supported by a recipe and tips website at wintersweetz.com.

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Limoneira Company: Publicly-traded citrus grower, packer and marketer (NASDAQ: LMNR) with operations across California, Arizona and South America. Comparable as an integrated citrus operator with branded programs and direct retail distribution.
• Sunkist Growers: Long-standing citrus marketing cooperative selling oranges, lemons, limes and grapefruit under a national brand. Comparable as a multi-region grower-packer-shipper with strong retail relationships and branded citrus programs.
• Bee Sweet Citrus: California-based vertically integrated citrus grower, packer and shipper serving major U.S. retail and export customers. Closely comparable to Lone Star in scale, vertical integration and B2B trade-portal-driven sales motion.
• Stemilt Growers: Family-owned vertically integrated tree-fruit grower, packer and shipper (apples, pears, cherries) with branded consumer programs. Comparable operating model — family-led, vertically integrated, branded produce with proprietary traceability and packhouse technology.
• Pacific Trellis Fruit: Year-round grower, packer and shipper of grapes, peaches, plums, citrus and other fruit serving U.S. and Canadian retail. Comparable as a multi-category fresh-fruit packer-shipper with similar retailer and wholesale distributor customer base.
• Florida's Natural Growers: Citrus grower cooperative primarily producing orange juice under the Florida's Natural brand, with grove-to-shelf vertical integration. Comparable as a grower-led citrus cooperative with strong regional brand identity and processing infrastructure.
• Wonderful Citrus: One of the largest integrated citrus grower-packers-shippers in the U.S., marketing brands like Halos, Wonderful Seedless Lemons and Sweet Scarletts. Directly comparable to Lone Star as a vertically integrated citrus operator serving U.S. and Canadian retailers.

Broad incumbents

• Dole plc: Global produce company with citrus among its diversified fresh fruit portfolio and large-scale packhouse operations. Overlaps with Lone Star in fresh citrus supply to U.S. retailers but operates at vastly larger, multi-region scale.
• Fresh Del Monte Produce: Vertically integrated global producer, packer and distributor of fresh produce including citrus. Comparable in vertically integrated growing-packing-shipping model but with much broader category and geographic footprint than Lone Star.

Regional players

• Edinburg Citrus Association: Texas Rio Grande Valley citrus cooperative headquartered in the same region as Lone Star. Comparable as a regional Texas citrus grower-pack-shipper competing for the same grove base and retail relationships in the Rio Grande Valley.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/LoneStarCitrus
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/lone-star-citrus-growers

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Lone Star Citrus Growers