Natalie’s Orchid Island Juice Company’s Marygrace Sexton Awarded Women in Manufacturing STEP Award

Natalie’s Orchid Island Juice Company announced today that founder & CEO Marygrace Sexton will receive the prestigious Women in Manufacturing STEP (Science, Technology, Engineering and Production) Ahead Award. Each year, The Manufacturing Institute honors 130 women who have demonstrated excellence and leadership in their careers in the manufacturing sector. This year’s winners will be recognized at the Manufacturing Institute’s Awards Dinner on April 10^th in Washington, D.C.

“As a women-run company, this award comes as a truly special honor,” says Marygrace Sexton, Founder and CEO of Natalie’s Orchid Island Juice Company. “Our dedication to manufacturing is the key to crafting our authentically clean juice and getting it to our customers in a consistently fresh and authentic way. It’s the reason we can deliver a minimally processed juice that’s free of preservatives and artificial ingredients.”

The Manufacturing Institute is recognizing Sexton for her commitment to manufacturing excellence at the 30-year-old company. From the very beginning, Sexton insisted that Natalie’s Orchid Island Juices be squeezed fresh in small batches to retain quality and nutrition. Scaling that to produce nearly 7 million gallons of juice a year has taken tremendous dedication. Sexton says this manufacturing business model, which results in over 50 changeovers in a single day, has definitely created its set of challenges to the company’s efficiencies.  But according to Sexton, “Natalie’s Orchid Island Juices takes efficiency very seriously since it considers its customers the best in the world and deserving of Natalie’s dedication to efficient production.”

Sexton’s daughter, Natalie, who is director of marketing, and also the company’s namesake, is proud that her mother is being recognized for the company’s accomplishments. “Providing our customers with a squeezed fresh, honestly-sourced juice that tastes great actually takes a lot of hard work and creativity from a manufacturing standpoint,” explains Sexton. “We’re continuously looking for ways to improve the process and Marygrace is behind every one of these new manufacturing initiatives – which may soon include new packaging.”

According to the Manufacturing’s Institute, women constitute one of manufacturing’s largest pools of untapped talent. Women totaled about 47 percent of the U.S. labor force in 2017, but only 29 percent of the manufacturing workforce. The STEP Ahead Awards are part of the larger STEP Ahead initiative, launched to examine and promote the role of women in the manufacturing industry. Not only does the STEP Ahead initiative bolster manufacturing’s attractiveness to women, it also plays an important role in improving the perception of careers in the industry among younger generations.

On April 10, The Manufacturing Institute will recognize 130 recipients of the STEP Ahead Awards at a reception in Washington, D.C. The STEP Ahead Awards program will highlight each honoree’s story, including their leadership and accomplishments in manufacturing.

About The Manufacturing Institute: The Manufacturing Institute is the 501(c)(3) affiliate of the National Association of Manufacturers. As a non-partisan organization, the Institute is committed to delivering leading-edge information and services to the nation’s manufacturers. The Institute is the authority on the attraction, qualification and development of world-class manufacturing talent.

For more information, please visit: https://www.themanufacturinginstitute.org

About Natalie’s Orchid Island Juice Company

For over 35 years, our purpose-driven journey has been rooted in a commitment to procure and produce only the highest quality ingredients to create our line of exceptional and award-winning juices. A featured juice favorite amongst Good Housekeeping, Bon Appetit, Woman’s Day and Clean Eating Magazine, we are dedicated to creating a world-class product and to providing an uncompromising tasting experience had by all. Natalie’s award-winning line of juices continues expanding its reach coast to coast in the United States, in most major retailers, and globally in over 15 countries.

Natalie’s unprecedented growth has landed the company a multi-year honor of the Inc. 5000 list and leads the juice category as a driving force in innovation while still maintaining its meticulous practice of minimal processing and minimal ingredients to ensure authentic freshness that is both nostalgic and unrivaled. Marygrace Sexton (a recent inductee of the SFA Hall of Fame), continues to lead and inspire the 2nd generation evolution of this woman-owned, family-operated company and creates impact in communities both local and abroad with her charitable efforts, non-profit organizations and unyielding passion for bringing clean-label juices and a source of optimum nourishment to families everywhere. Visit www.oijc.com