Tupperware’s been around a long time—and we’re not just talking about the kitchenware and plastic bowls.
The company behind the concept placed its corporate headquarters in Kissimmee, on Orange Blossom Trail just north of the road now called Osceola Parkway, in 1952. It’s the white building motorists have driven past for decades.
Company owner Earl Tupper and his wife bought 1,000 acres of land in Kissimmee and moved its headquarters here, and it became a local landmark— a contemporary white building, a performing arts center and the iconic “Friendship Fountain” in the center of a brick grotto outside its main entrance.
Once “in the middle of nowhere,” the city came out to meet it, first with northern neighbor Gatorland, then with development around Osceola Parkway and State Road 417, the Osceola County School for the Arts at the south end of the property, then the Crosslands Center across OBT, that Tupperware’s corporate real estate entity helped broker and design.
It was that building “in the middle of nowhere” that Fred Daunno went to work at, first as an artist and design director, in 1975, coming from the Hallmark company. He later became the company’s art director, designing logos and other branding, through his retirement in 2008.
He said the headquarters was a place full of vibrant life and joyful work.
“Those years were the best times of my life, I really enjoyed and looked forward to working there,” he said. “They operated in such a fun way, us and the people who sold the product felt it. Artists don’t get that opportunity often. I’m so happy my talents met up with their needs.”
For decades, the product was only available through direct sales—the company coined the term “Tupperware party” after homemakers, largely female, sold the products at home gatherings. One of those sales “executives” was Brownie Wise, who moved up through the company, and now Brownie Wise Park on the east side of Lake Tohopekaliga bears her name.
When the patent came up for renewal, other companies copied the concept and sold what Tupperware consider inferior “knock-off” product in stores. With consumers not knowing (or caring about) the difference, sales began to tumble. In 2022, Tupperware opened an Amazon storefront and launched in Target. But global sales failed to pick up.
“When it went contemporary, they forgot their core customers were oldfashioned,” Daunno said. “I left long before they had problems.”
A Tupperware museum and retail store was located inside the headquarters; travel website reports showed it closed during the COVID-19 pandemic as employees were sent to work from home. In 2021, Tupperware completed the sale and transfer of land surrounding the headquarters. Housing is now being constructed between the headquarters and OCSA with a frontage on Orange Avenue to the east, near where a SunRail station still bears the company’s name.
The company filed for bankruptcy in September 2024, and the workforce at the Kissimmee location slowly dwindled. The last of the employees left there in December. During that time, Party Products LLC acquired many of the company’s assets, including global rights to the Tupperware brand name. It allowed production of product to continue, but Daunno doesn’t know where.
“I don’t even know where to find them,” he said, noting he’s contacted former business associates to try to bridge the gap.
The moves leave behind that white contemporary building. Landscaping fronting OBT is already a bit scraggly, and while the building is now unoccupied, the welcome desk and company information still adorning the walls are right inside.
The familiar Friendship Fountain has been dismantled and removed, leaving behind a shallow pond of brackish, green water. The parking lot of an adjoining Tupperware engineering and security building—located on Mary Louis Boulevard, named after a former company employee—is now filled with Tesla vehicles, as a distribution center opened on the other side of Osceola Parkway last year.
The county’s property appraiser’s website shows the land is owned by Spiriti Realty LP of San Diego, with a value of $27 million including the structures.
Calls to a number of 800 and 888 phone numbers reach the same call center, where a representative could only confirm that the company’s headquarters are still in Florida. He furnished an email address to reach company officials; two emails sent in the past two weeks have gone unreturned.
Public records requests for any permits or plans filed on the property have been made to Osceola County.
