10-ton ‘Big Bertha’ honors South Bay Growers’ legacy
SOUTH BAY — South Bay Growers, headquartered in the tiny town of South Bay just west of Belle Glade, was founded in 1946. For decades it flourished as one of the nation’s largest growers of lettuce, celery, and other winter vegetables and employed as many as 2,500 workers in western Palm Beach County.
The company typically harvested, packed and shipped 40,000 to 50,000 cartons of lettuce and 10,000 to 12,000 cartons of celery daily during its winter season.
Its closure in 1994 after vegetable prices hit bottom was devastating to the entire Glades region. About 1,300 people lost their jobs.
Now “Big Bertha,” a 10-ton yellow Caterpillar Crawler bulldozer once used in South Bay Growers’ muck fields, has been permanently positioned off U.S. 27 in South Bay to honor the company, its founders and employees for all they meant to the Glades.
A plaque with historic photos and a brief history is displayed on the bulldozer.
Brenda Bunting, executive director of the Belle Glade Chamber of Commerce officiated at a ceremony where the bulldozer was unveiled this month in front of Branch: A Family of Farms, a major packer and shipper of sweet corn. Branch occupies the property where South Bay Growers operated.
The company was started by Glades legends C.A. “Mutt” Thomas, Billy Rogers, John Evans, James Summerlin and Harry Smith. Smith died, and his share was bought out by Inman Weeks.
The first crop was wiped out by the 1947 hurricane, a storm that was “all water,” Bunting said
Individuals and companies involved in the memorial effort include Brett Bergmann of Hugh Branch, Darryl Douglass, Rusty’s Sandblasting, Bart Perryman, Dave Lyons, Murray Weeks and Paul Allen of R.C. Hatton Farms.
Allen said the bulldozer was owned by R.C. Hatton for a number of years, and still starts.
Bunting said South Bay Growers was a great facility and was a blessing to the Glades.
South Bay Growers is credited with the development of iceberg lettuce as a major crop in Florida. The industry grew after farming methods and equipment on muckland in Wisconsin were brought to the Glades.
In the 1990s, South Bay began to package salads for the retail trade. Its salad plant also processed fresh vegetables for McDonald’s, Burger King and other large food service firms.
South Bay Growers also owned and operated a plastics plant that manufactured celery cartons and even made boxes for the postal service.
In the 1960s, the team of Frank Teets, Charles Wilson, Murray
Weeks, Gary Norman, Don Scruggs and others built the company into a powerhouse.
Don Tanner, who worked for the company starting in 1959 in receiving and then moved on to production and other areas, said South Bay Growers farmed 12,000 acres.
Its three divisions were lettuce, celery and cabbage and other leafy greens such as romaine and escarole.
Weeks and his wife, Vera, were on hand for the dedication, and recalled that during South Bay Growers’ prime, more than 50 semitrailers filled its parking lot each morning, ready be loaded. They would arrive at the New York terminal market in about two days.
“Trucks were running day and night. When it shut down, it was a big deal,” Vera Weeks said.
In 1980, South Bay Growers was sold to U.S. Sugar Corp. for $80 million, according to articles published in The Palm Beach Post.
Following financial losses in four out of five seasons in the early 1990s, South Bay Growers was shut down. During the 1993-94 season alone, it lost $10.6 million, and U.S. Sugar made the decision to get out of the vegetable business. About 30 percent of the crop was left in the fields.
Nelson Fairbanks, who was president and CEO of U.S. Sugar in July 1994 when the decision was made, said then it was the “hardest, unhappiest announcement I’ve ever had to make.”
Company officials attributed the heavy losses to extremely low prices for leafy vegetables. Prices were particularly depressed because of unexpectedly heavy production in California and Arizona and a bad winter in the Northeast that resulted in decreased sales.
In other bad years in the early 1990s, the operation was hurt by freezes and floods.
Following financial losses in four out of five seasons in the early 1990s, South Bay Growers was shut down. Nelson Fairbanks, who was president and CEO of U.S. Sugar in July 1994 when the decision was made, said then it was the ‘hardest, unhappiest announcement I’ve ever had to make.’