With its several acquisitions over the past few years, Paramount Citrus is the dominant player in the Texas citrus industry, now controlling more than 10,000 acres and about 75 percent of the deal.

David Krause, president of the firm, which has its global headquarters in Delano, CA, and its Texas headquarters in Mission, TX, said both sweet Texas red grapefruits and Texas oranges make up the firm’s offerings from that part of the world. “We sell our oranges and grapefruit under the trade label ‘Texas Grown,’” he said.

Paramount, which sells many citrus varieties, including Mandarins, Navel oranges, Valencia oranges, lemons and limes, did not have a grapefruit offering in its portfolio before entering the Texas deal. That was a big reason for the acquisition of long time Rio Grande Valley firms Rio Queen and Healds Valley in the last few years. “We wanted to offer grapefruit to our customers to continue being the ‘go-to’ resource in the citrus category,” said Krause. “We were looking for a premium grapefruit product and Texas red grapefruit is high quality in terms of taste and consumer appeal.”

The firm has taken the connection one step further by branding its grapefruit. “Wonderful Sweet Scarletts is the only consumer branded grapefruit in the market and we’re excited for their arrival into stores this fall,” said the company president.

This fall, in fact, will be the first year that Wonderful Sweet Scarletts are available nationwide. The company rolled the product out last year in the Midwest and achieved what it called “fantastic results.” Wonderful Sweet Scarletts will be in season October through May. “We plan on launching nationwide this October and educating consumers and media about the sweetness of the Texas red grapefruit,” said Krause. “This sweet variety of grapefruit has not yet been marketed to the public and because it is a premium product that the consumer wants and hasn’t been exposed to, we see it being a perfect opportunity for Paramount Citrus to become the one-stop citrus shop.”

Wonderful Sweet Scarletts will be backed by an integrated marketing effort complete with a print campaign, FSIs (free standing inserts), a public relations program, point-of-sale material, “and in-store activations and graphics that create those cart-stopping moments in the produce section,” Krause said.

The Paramount executive said Wonderful Sweet Scarletts are the newest addition to Paramount’s “Wonderful” family, which includes the well-known Pom Wonderful pomegranate juice and pistachios marketed under that name. He indicated that it is the Texas climate — warm, sunny days with cool nights — that yields this great-tasting grapefruit.

While Paramount is continuing to invest in the future in Texas, it is concentrating much of its efforts on its branded grapefruit program. Krause believes that it has built a blueprint for success in branded produce and that knowledge can be extended to grapefruit.

“We are focused on ensuring that our Texas citrus is of the highest quality,” he said. “Thus, we’ll continue to invest to ensure that our customers and consumers only receive the freshest product from us. We have concentrated our efforts to focus on the nationwide distribution of Wonderful Sweet Scarletts Texas red grapefruits. Wonderful Brands is known for transforming commodities like pistachios, pomegranates, almonds and Mandarins into healthy brands and we’re looking to do the same thing with grapefruits. We support all our brands with strong marketing campaigns and Wonderful Sweet Scarletts will be no different.”

As he was providing information for this article, the Texas citrus crop was on the trees and growers were trying to make the crop. “The Texas season is rapidly approaching and will be starting earlier this season,” Krause said.