Welcome to the Arena from ICR – Conversations with Today's Innovators & Business Leaders

In their 125 years in existence, Alico had grown to become one of America's leading citrus producers. In January 2025, owing to adverse weather events and crop disease, they made the difficult decision to wind down their citrus operations and adopt a new real estate-focused business model.

Today, we sit down with John Kiernan, president and CEO of Alico, which trades on the NASDAQ under the symbol ALCO. John has been overseeing Alico's recent efforts to transition out of the citrus industry towards a strategy that makes full use of their extensive holdings in Florida real estate, valued somewhere between 650-750 million dollars.

Going from growing oranges to building communities is no easy feat. John explains how Alico is leveraging their great team, and ample liquidity, to make it work.


Highlights:
  • Alico's history (2:10)
  • Alico's land holdings (4:09)
  • Pivot to Real Estate (5:03)
  • Florida Population Growth (6:04)
  • A Diversified Land Company (8:18)
  • Shareholder Returns (10:35)
  • Alico's Identity (12:18)
  • Alico's Role in Development (13:30)
  • Corkscrew Grove (14:53)
  • Regulatory Hurdles (17:22)
  • Entitlements (1945)
  • Mitigating Risk (22:18)


Links:
John's LinkedIn
Alico LinkedIn
Alico Website
ICR LinkedIn
ICR Twitter
ICR Website

 

Feedback:
If you have questions about the show, or have a topic in mind you'd like discussed in future episodes, email our producer, joe@lowerstreet.co.

What is Welcome to the Arena from ICR – Conversations with Today's Innovators & Business Leaders?

In the increasingly crowded and competitive corporate and financial ecosystem, it’s harder than ever for companies to break through the clutter and be heard. The media, investors, agenda-driven influencers, even customers and competitors, are defining your business story on their terms. Therefore, it is imperative that companies take control and proactively drive the conversation with stakeholders in an effort to build & maintain equity value.

In Welcome to the Arena from ICR, Co-Founder & CEO of ICR, Tom Ryan, interviews key business and financial players who influence the fate of public or aspiring public companies in the capital markets. As a former Wall Street Journal ranked sell-side equity analyst and the founder of one of the largest strategic communications firms in the world, Tom understands what it takes to navigate this complex environment.

This is a forum for CEOs, CFOs, institutional investors, sell-side analysts, financial journalists, private equity professionals and other financial community participants to share their stories and give advice in an open and candid conversation.

For more information, visit http://www.icrinc.com