In 1939 when Steve Hale, Jr. was a student at Georgia Tech, he visited Vero Beach, Florida during a Spring break. While exploring this beautiful little town for the first time, he met an elderly man who opened up a whole new world for him. This person, because of his poor health, had moved south from New Jersey to Vero Beach and started his own mail order fruit shipping business. Proudly showing Steve around his small packinghouse, he gave Steve a sample of his fresh, just picked, tree-ripened fruit. Steve had never tasted oranges and grapefruit so sweet and juicy. Before leaving to go back to school, he found out that Vero Beach was located in the very heart of the Indian River citrus belt, even then known for growing the best tasting Florida Oranges and grapefruit. Inspired by this visit, Steve decided that if an elderly man in poor health could establish and operate a business like this, a young energetic person could surely be able to do the same. Right then and there he made this his goal. However, this dream had to be postponed. Upon graduating, in 1940, with a Mechanical Engineering degree and a commission in the U.S. Naval Reserve as an Ensign, and since war seemed inevitable, he volunteered for active duty. Upon completing his service in 1946, he immediately headed for Vero Beach,Florida with his wife, Polly, and two small children.

Steve Hale, Jr. 1951

Polly and Steve started their Indian River fruit business by renting a small fruit stand located along the side of U.S. Highway # 1. Their home was their office and they used a shed behind their house for packing fruit. Their first mailing list was made up of names of all their relatives and friends. Another continual source of new names came from customers stopping at their fruit stand to enjoy fresh squeezed orange juice. Many bought fruit to take home with them, and ordered baskets of fruit to be shipped to relatives and friends up north. Names of recipients receiving these gift baskets provided additional new names as well. Steve picked the fruit, packed it in their shed, and trucked it to the Railway Express Station. Polly, in addition to caring for the children, manned the phone, answering questions and taking fruit orders. In the evenings, they shared the tasks of taking care of the children, writing gift cards to be inserted in the fruit baskets, and typing the shipping labels. From this small start, Hale Groves has grown rapidly for over a half a century. Acknowledged as being one of Florida's leaders in the gift fruit industry, it has become a national company shipping Florida oranges, grapefruit, honeybells, specialty fruit and other products throughout the United States and Canada. As in the beginning, Hale Groves has always guaranteed complete satisfaction to their customers.

Hale Indian River Groves is located in Indian River County near Vero Beach and Wabasso, the very heart of the famous Indian River Citrus Belt -- a relatively small but premier citrus producing area in Florida. We are fortunate in having dedicated associates who take pride in doing their part in enhancing the good reputation of Hale Groves. Hale Groves is fortunate to have a special combination of rich soil, ample water supply, and moderate climate - very rarely reaching a freezing temperature. All this, combined with our modern grove management, are contributing factors that make our oranges and grapefruit the juiciest and best tasting you will find. Our motto is: The freshest and best tasting. Guaranteed. We are looking forward to the opportunity to serve you. The Hale Family and Team

A view of the Indian River through the groves.

New Web Site Features Hale Groves gives you an up-to-date web site which has many features that we hope you'll find user-friendly. Customers can sign up for an online account and benefit from the many unique features of our web site. We simply request an email address and a password to register as a member. Online Catalog Experience the same look and feel of our catalog virtually. There is no need to wait for your catalog to arrive when you can flip thru our newest catalog online, anytime. Gift List View your gift list from last year. Make the necessary changes (edit address, change gift, add recipient) or leave it the same. With a couple of clicks, your holiday shopping is complete! Track Your Orders Wondering where your packages are? Wonder no more. We provide you with online order status, so you know when your order is shipped and when your recipient has received it. Additional Web Site Features Online Address Book Maintain the addresses of your family, friends and business associates in a secure online address book. The feature makes shopping a breeze and improves the shopping experience of returning customers. Gift Reminder Service We'll remind you of upcoming birthdays, anniversaries or any other special dates via email when you sign up for the Gift Reminder Service. Never again forget a special date. Email Specials Receive periodical emails on special offers, unique recipes, announcement of new fruit varieties and much more when you sign up for our free email specials. Quick Shop With your Hale catalog in hand, simply type in the gift number you wish to purchase and select your gift recipient from your address book, or add a new gift recipient and simply click to add to your shopping cart. This feature speeds up the online ordering process. Security All contact information that you provide is used to process your order and to send additional promotional material, with your permission. Halegroves.com is a secure web site that uses a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption technology to scramble private data, such as credit card numbers, so it remains safe as it's transmitted to our servers.