Cranberry Stressline

Archives

April 12 - 19, 2000

 

Pepsi benefits from Tropicana's strong performance
International division also shows growth

Minute Maid strong performer for Coke

Northland 2nd quarter financials released

Editorial -
A revitalized Ocean Spray in 2002;
but are the means ethical or legal?

State wants to purchase easements on Makepeace land

Chilean fresh cranberries coming to U.S. in April

Ocean Spray advertising and promotion

Ocean Spray growers receive April Advance


Pepsi benefits from Tropicana's strong performance
International division also shows growth

4/19/00 From Pepsi Press Release: Operating profit at Tropicana soared 70% to $60 million in the first quarter of 2000 as a burst of volume growth was accompanied by favorable cost trends.

Revenues grew 7% to $532 million. Volume gained 6%, spurred by a 13% increase in Pure Premium, Tropicana's market-leading not-from-concentrate orange juice. Pure Premium blends grew 30%, reflecting the success of an expanding array of not-from-concentrate juice combinations. During the quarter, Tropicana expanded distribution of its latest fortified offering, Double Vitamin C with E, which is being supported by a media campaign featuring the potential benefits of anti-oxidants. Volume of fortified juices grew 55% in the quarter.

During the quarter, Tropicana Pure Premium became the number three brand in U. S. grocery stores, displacing Campbell's Soup. In 1999 it surpassed Kraft Cheese as the number four brand. Read entire press release here


Editorial

A revitalized Ocean Spray in 2002;
but are the means ethical or legal?

4/16/00 Ocean Spray is on the fast track. If we believe their promises, the new management team will turn the company around in two years. Can you live with their methods?

A Streamlined Company

The board of directors has been downsized. The competition is on the ropes, having been battered by targeted aggressive price slashing.  In some parts of the country 64 oz. bottles of cranberry juice cocktail are retailing at 99 cents, with an additional rebate offer. How can anybody compete with that? Northland stock has taken a nose dive.

Ocean Spray, by their own statements, never had a surplus. All they had was enough berries to flood the market and clobber the competition the old fashioned way - not with a better product or more astute advertising - but by predatory underpricing.

Ocean Spray is streamlining operations, not just by closing or selling a facility here and there, but by eliminating many small farmers, including some of its most unruly, outspoken dissenters. The fact that these growers complained about the very problems of mismanagement that are now being admitted to is irrelevant. A radical cannot be tolerated in the corporate culture of Ocean Spray where the rule has been to get along, you go along.  Even if this wasn't the case, the way they seem to see it, it's simply unwieldy and inefficient to have approximately three quarters of their farmers grow only twenty-five percent of  their crop. They are paying them far less than it costs to grow a crop and driving them out of business.

They eliminate an unwanted element and streamline decision making. From a corporate predatory perspective, can you blame them? Is a corporate predatory perspective appropriate for an agricultural cooperative?

CONTINUED | Easy to print version


Ocean Spray advertising and promotion

click hereClick for close-ups
4/12/00 Ocean Spray is selling 64 oz. cranberry juice cocktail and some blends at deep discounts in various parts of the country. There are not only two-for-one specials, but cranberry juice cocktail has been advertised for 99 cents (with a limit of four per customer).


Ocean Spray growers receive April Advance

4/12/00 Ocean Spray growers have received their April Advance on the 1999 crop in the amount of $1.00 per barrel. Last year the April Advance was $3.50 a barrel and the year before it was $9.50 a barrel.

Minute Maid strong performer for Coke

4/18/00 Minute Maid reported an 11% increase in volume for the quarter. Industry sources report that both juice giants, Minute Maid which is owned by Coca-Cola and Tropicana which is owned by PepsiCo, are interested expanding their juice lines. They both need a reasonably priced and reliable source of cranberries to add cranberry juice and cranberry juice blands to their lines. Some cranberry growers have  individually been contacted by representatives from Minute Maid. They are making inquiries in order to better understand the current cranberry situation.  Read Coke story in CBS Market Watch here.


Northland 2nd quarter financials released

4/16/00 "Our operating loss during the quarter, which amounted to approximately $0.11 per share, was primarily the result of continued heavy price discounting and promotional activity by Ocean Spray, as well as unanticipated one-time expenses associated with the national introduction of our new 'easy-grip' bottle. Despite the heavy promotional spending by our competition, our Northland 100% juice brand and Seneca cranberry drinks brand continued to perform well in supermarkets during the second quarter. The combined market share of our two brands in the supermarket shelf-stable cranberry beverage category for the 12-weeks ended February 27, 2000, was 13.6%, up from 12.6% for the 12-weeks ended November 7, 1999.'' Read entire report here.


State wants to purchase easements on Makepeace land

4/14/00 Massachusetts' state Secretary of Environmental Affairs Robert Durand said that the state wants to purchase conservation easements on 5,000 acres of the 9,600 acres of land owned by A.D. Makepeace. If consumated, the arrangement would be similar to last year's Pingree land deal in Maine. The state purchased a large tract of land from a private timber company and protected a large portion of their north woods from development. According to an article in the Standard Times, the deal "will involve the state helping to manage wildlife on the Makepeace land, which is next to Myles Standish State Forest. Mr. Durand emphasized that he wants to preserve this valuable woodland at a time when the price of cranberries has dropped, placing more financial pressure on Makepeace and other growers in southeastern Massachusetts." Read the story in the Standard Times article here.


Chilean fresh cranberries coming to U.S. in April

4/12/00 According to an article in the April 10th issue of The Packer,  the CF Fresh company based in Sedro-Woolley, Washington will be importing 4,000 cases of Chilean organic cranberries. The cranberries are being grown by Christian Boesch in the Lakes Region of Chili and are certified organic by the Corporation for the Promotion of Organic Agriculture in Santiago.

Mr. Boesch is a former Austrian opera star, which explains why the product will be called Fundo Papageno. Fundo means farm in Spanish, while Papageno is the character in Mozart's Magic Flute which Boesch used to play.

The cranberries will be packed in 4.3 oz. clamshell trays and promoted as "Cranberries in April."

 

 

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