Celebrated growers buy Florida Specialties, LLC

Owners include third generation Hilliard family members

CLEWISTON, Fla. (October 6, 2016) - A group of prominent South Florida growers and agricultural investors with over 100 years of farming success to their credit has formed HBS Florida Specialties, LLC to purchase Florida Specialties,LLC and its Blue Ribbon Beans brand. The seller is Myles Strohl, who purchased Florida Specialties, LLC in 2009 and introduced the Blue Ribbon Beans product in 2010.

The new company is a combination of principals from AgGator Farming Inc., Little Cypress Farms and four members of the Hilliard family - Joe Marlin Hilliard, son of the company’s namesake brothers Joe A. and Marlin Hilliard, his daughter Mary Elizabeth Hilliard Carroll, and sons Joe Marlin Hilliard II and Bryan Hilliard.

The Hilliard family began their farming and ranching business in 1932, growing to incorporate more than 20,000 acres in Hendry and Glades counties. Along with cattle, citrus, sod and sugarcane, they have been an industry leader in row crops since the 1980’s. In 1995, they added green beans to a vegetable division that currently includes bell peppers, squash, cucumbers and eggplant. Hilliard Brothers of Florida grows on average 2800+ acres of green beans annually. "Our ability to diversify our crops and utilize the latest farming techniques available has kept us a top producer in the vegetable industry,” says Bryan Hilliard, who will manage HBS Florida Specialties, LLC.

Little Cypress Farms has grown green beans for over twenty years, twelve of those years with Florida Specialties, growing close to 2000 acres of vegetables annually according to Julio Sanchez, principal of Little Cypress Farms and president of AgGator Farming Inc.
AgGator Farming Inc. is an agricultural and real estate investment company comprised of individuals in Florida and North Carolina, all of whom have deep ties to agriculture and agribusiness in their respective localities.

HBS Florida Specialties, LLC completed the sale on October 5, 2016. Henderson, Franklin, Starnes & Holt, P.A. of Fort Myers is the registered agent for HBS Florida Specialties, LLC.

About HBS Florida Specialties, LLC
Organized in October of 2016 to purchase Florida Specialties, LLC and Blue Ribbon, LLC, HBS Florida Specialties, LLC is comprised of longstanding leaders in the Southwest Florida agricultural industry, including third generation members of the legendary Hilliard family of Hilliard Brothers of Florida. For more information, contact General Manager Warren Jones at (863)885-4575.