Initially founded as Index Orchards in 1914, the company known today as Index Fresh in Bloomington, CA, is celebrating its centennial this year

“A global leader in the packing and marketing of avocados,” Index has “a long and interesting history,” according to a company press release.

“We were founded by California growers and remain grower owned,” President and CHief Executive Officer Dana Thomas said in the release. “That’s a unique strength that has served us well during our first one hundred years and helps us understand the business of avocados from the California growers’ perspective.”

Inside the Index Mutual packinghouse in La Habra, CA, in the 1950s. (Photo courtesy of Index Fresh Inc.)The company started not in avocados but in citrus. The creation of Index Orchards in 1914 came about as a result of “the desire by a group of citrus growers in Orange County, CA, to pack their own fruit,” the release stated. Index Orchards “joined the thriving and growing citrus packing industry in Southern California. At the time, Orange County was a rural area known for agricultural production. Index Orchards’ first packinghouse was built at a rail line crossing known as De Moines Station, at the base of the La Habra Hills.

“The ideal weather and open land were attractive, and the railroads brought new farmers from the Midwest. The railroads also allowed California produce to be shipped to eastern markets.”

The growers association was called Mutual Orange Distributors, but was also known as Pure Gold

According to the La Habra Journal, Index Orchards took over an old walnut packinghouse location on which to build its new citrus packinghouse. “With 25 growers, this new association had 250 productive acres in the Lowell and La Habra Heights area.”

The October 1914 issue of the Pomona College Quarterly stated, “H.H. Warner has accepted the position of secretary and manager of Index orchards, the new Mutual Orange Distributors packinghouse at De Moines, California.” The city of De Moines was later renamed La Habra.

Warner had previously been a student assistant in plant breeding at Riverside Citrus Experiment Station.

Index Orchards, which was among the first grower-owned distributors in Orange County, “reported quick and profitable growth in those early years,” Thomas said in the release.

“By the twenties, Index Orchards had developed labels using the conic index finger logo pointing to fruit boxes featuring oranges and lemons,” according to a historical account published in a company newsletter, The Index Fresh Insider, Winter 2014. “The exact reason for the name ‘Index’ has been lost to posterity. Some believe that the name refers to an index finger signaling that Index was #1, while others suggest that fruit handled through the new company would be ‘indexed’ to the market.”

In addition to the “Index” and “Index Supreme” labels, lemons and oranges “were packed under Pure Gold’s labels: “Sunflower,” “Golden Rod,” “Tree-O,” “Yucca” and “Orchid,” according to the Insider.

On Jan. 16, 1921, an annual meeting of Index Orchards was held in the packinghouse. An account of that meeting published in a company publication called The Mutual Orange Distributor’s Citrus Leaf Magazine stated, “the annual report was read by the secretary, showing that the organization was in splendid shape.

At the time, George M. Eaby was president of the organization and R.A. Wheatly, who would later become president, was vice president.

“Eaby had arrived in California in 1896 and settled in Whittier, where he worked on various ranches,” according to the Insider. “In 1906, Eaby purchased six acres on La Miranda Avenue, west of La Habra, three acres of which were set out to walnuts. The remaining three acres he set out to Valencia oranges. Early on, he used Index Orchards to market his citrus. He became prominent citizen and ultimately the president of the company.”

Business continued to boom at Index Orchards, and in November 1929,15 years after the company’s founding, its 20 shareholders joined with some other growers to form a new cooperative called Index Mutual Association.

At the start of 1936, the Citrus Leaves Magazine stated, “Manager T.E. Woodward quoted excellent reports of [the] past year’s business and heard heartening predictions of the outlook for 1936.”

“This optimistic pronouncement was made despite the fact that the rest of the country was mired in the depths of the Great Depression,” according to the Insider.

“Coincidentally, [1936] was the same year that Rudolph Hass patented an unusual avocado tree that he bought years before in the heights just above La Habra and a few miles from the Index packinghouse.”

It was by chance that Index had located its packinghouse near the La Habra Hills where the development of the Hass avocado would occur. There, Rudolph Hass, who had purchased a small avocado grove in 1925, planted some avocado trees from seed of unknown parentage. Some he grafted over to Fuerte, but one was found to produce an entirely new black-skin variety. Hass eventually patented the variety and named it after himself.

Avocados were an exotic fruit at the time, and there were several successful commercial varieties being marketed. Soon, several growers were growing the new Hass variety as well, and in 1939 they formed a company in the La Habra Hills called United Avocado Growers Association to market their avocados, including the new Hass variety. In the 1950s, Index Mutual acquired Untied Avocado Growers and entered the avocado business.

The Hass variety caught on and now accounts for some 95 percent of the roughly 1.7 billion pounds of avocados now consumed annually in the United States.

“After its infancy in the early 1910s and its youth in the 20s and 30s, Index entered adulthood in the 40s pursuing their core mission of marketing citrus from Orange County through the Orange Mutual Association based in Redlands. Managed as grower cooperative, Index periodically held annual meetings in a hall at Knott’s Berry Farm when it was still primarily a berry farm and long before it became the amusement park it is today,” according to the second installment of a historical account prepared for publication in the Spring 2014 edition of the Insider, an advance copy of which was furnished to The Produce News.

According to that account, United Avocado Growers Association, “marketed Fuertes and other greenskin varieties in the’ Try-A-Cado,’ ‘Eat-A-Cado,’ ‘Vita-A-Cado’ and ‘Taurus’ labels. In addition to traditional varieties, United Avocado was an early believer in the Hass variety and, with Hass pioneer nurseryman H.H. Brokaw as a United member, worked to introduce the new black, pebbly fruit under the ‘Black Gem’ brand.

“In the 40s, United Avocados rented and moved into the old La Habra Walnut Growers shed on Index’s property in La Habra. This proximity, along with the fact that the companies shared Board members, made it a natural that Index and United would merge as Index looked to diversify its product line. This diversification was a strategic decision made to keep Index a strong company as citrus acreage in Orange County began to decline in the 1950s. Index adapted its packing line and coolers to the needs of avocados and began to market avocados under the ‘Index,’ ‘Index Supreme,’ ‘So-Good’ and ‘Mr. Avocado’ labels.

“By the time that Index and United merged, Don Winfrey had been Index’s General Manager for a number of years, a position that he would hold until 1984. During the 1960s avocados replaced citrus as Index’s primary product. In order to expand the avocado business Index began to source avocados outside of Orange County, establishing a field presence in San Diego County that included a receiving station just off of Mission Road in Fallbrook.

“The 1970s saw a rapid expansion in the avocado business with acreage and production increasing dramatically. It was during this period that Hass became the predominate variety both for the Index and the California avocado industry. Index grew with the industry, adding a fieldmen in Ventura and Riverside Counties during the 1970s, while working to expand the customer base as avocados became more common on retailers’ shelves. During the 1970s, Index cooperated with three other avocado handlers to airfreight the first avocados to Japan, opening a market that has continued to grow and is now an important part of the world avocado market.

“During the 1980s, supply of avocados overtook demand and the California avocado industry experienced several difficult years as measured by grower returns. Index continued to work with growers keeping costs low and striving for superior returns. These tough years turned out to be an investment in the future and helped to germinate the demand that continues to grow today. Don Winfrey retired in 1984 after 48 years with Index. His son Mike had started to work at Index in 1963 and continues today as Index’s packinghouse manager. Mike’s 51 years and Don’s 48 years means that there has been a Winfrey working at Index since 1934 — 80 years and counting.

“It was during the ‘70s and ‘80s that many changes came to the California avocado industry. In response to customer demand, Hass became the dominant variety. New clonal rootstocks began to turn the tide in the battle against phytophthora root rot. The advent of drip irrigation, followed by micro and mini-sprinklers, allowed for improved irrigation efficiencies and the planting of hillside orchards. Bins replaced wood crates for harvesting, pallet sizes were standardized, packing lines were computerized and PLU stickers made their appearance. Perhaps the most important of the changes to the avocado industry during this period was the introduction and adoption of preconditioning programs by handlers to provide ripe fruit for retail and food service customers.

“In 1987, disaster hit Index in the form of a fire that destroyed the packinghouse in La Habra. The fire occurred at night and Mike Winfrey tells the story of how within a day, Index had the telephones hooked up and had arranged for grower’s fruit to be packed at H&H Avocado in Whittier, allowing Index to keep servicing California growers throughout the crisis. After the fire, the Board of Directors made the decision to move the packing plant to the unincorporated area of Bloomington in San Bernardino County. Located near the junction of Highways 15 and 10, this location had the advantage of being centrally located between the northern and southern growing regions, as well as serving as a convenient and efficient pick-up location for customer trucks. A state-of-the-art packing facility was built in Bloomington and Index found itself well positioned for the rapid growth of the avocado market in the 1990s.”

In 1990, Index Mutual Association was renamed Index Fresh of California.

In 1999, as business continued to grow, shareholders voted to convert from a cooperative to a corporation with cooperative members becoming shareholders, and the name was changed to Index Fresh Inc.

U.S. and Canadian consumption of avocados grew rapidly during the 1990s, and customers began demanding year-round availability. To meet this demand, in 1991 Index Fresh began importing and marketing avocados from Chile, supplementing with contraseasonal supplies the fruit produced by California growers. In 2004, the company began importing and marketing avocados from Mexico. Four years later, Index Fresh introduced the “Avo Terra” brand and also began marketing Peruvian avocados in North America, initially into Canada and then, beginning in 1911, into the U.S. market.

Also to accommodate continued growth, Index’s Bloomington plant underwent expansion in 2003 and 2004. Then in 2010 and 2011, the facility was extensively upgraded and all new packing equipment was installed.

Index currently markets avocados under the “AvoTerra,” “AvoSol” and “AvoLoma” labels. The company also sells bagged avocados under the “AvoBuddies” program which, according to a corporate press release, “promotes the flavor, health benefits and convenience of avocados.”

During 2013, Index relocated its sales and administrative offices into a new office complex in downtown Riverside.

“Today, as their first century is completed, Index Fresh, Inc. is still owned by avocado growers and markets avocados from California, Mexico, Chile and Peru. Index supplies avocados to major retailers and large food service companies throughout America, and exports to Canada and Asia,” according to the release.

Index Fresh is celebrating its centennial anniversary “on both the grower and the customer side,” said Thomas in an interview with The Produce News March 24. “For us it is a milestone and a very fun, very exciting thing.”

The company, which always hosts a reception at the Produce Marketing Association’s Fresh Summit Convention & Expo each October, will make this year’s party an anniversary celebration. The theme will be “the 100 years of Index,” he said.

As for the next 100 years, “we are in the avocado business” and it is a business that is experiencing “a tremendous amount of growth,” Thomas said. We’ve got really strong base of growers in California. We’ve got good exporters in Chile, Mexico and Peru. We see the work that is being done” by avocado associations representing the various producing areas “and also by importers and marketers and packer-shippers like ourselves” to keep growing demand. “We think there is a bright future for avocados, and we think Index is going to be a big part of it.”

In the near future, he said, “we will be expanding our customer base and we will be expanding our production base and our ripening abilities in different points across the country.”

Currently, Index has ripening facilities in Denver, Chicago, and Ephrata, PA, as well as in Bloomington, CA, and has a warehouse and distribution center in McAllen, TX. “What we would like to do is add ripening in McAllen,” and in addition, “we are looking at a Southeast ripening center and, a little bit further out, a Northwest center,” he said. Also, “we will be taking a look at different ways of marketing avocados and working with customers to help them build demand for avocados.”