Cranberry Stressline

August 22 - 31, 1999


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Who will decide the future of Ocean Spray?

8/22/99 - For the past few months, the single most puzzling question that many cranberry growers have been asking themselves is: why does the Ocean Spray Board of Directors seem hell bent on leading the company to destruction? Each action the Board has taken, from following management's lead in paying greater attention  to competitors' strategies than to their own, to attempting to shift blame  for the situation onto either an oversupply or to disloyal growers, to minimizing serious weaknesses in getting   product  to customers (many of whom are now former customers), to flat-out deception and lies seems to fly straight in the opposite direction of what logic, basic business wisdom, and simple respect for the owners who elected them would dictate. Is there a reason why they are doing this? CONTINUEDReady to print version


Photo Essay:

Ocean Spray's waterfront bog in Plymouth

The weeds are going. Take a look.

 



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The Boston Business Journal doesn't "get it"

8/31/99 In an article entitled Industry bogged down: growers concerned about being buried under cranberries from the Boston Business Journal (8/30/99), once again the media missed the story behind the story. Focusing on the surplus the article merely mentions management changes at Ocean Spray ("A few top executives left the company this year, and its chief executive officer announced in June that he would step down next year, amid financial and market problems.") as if it is business as usual for a CEO to accept early retirement at the age of 53, after just three years on the job, in the midst of an industry crisis. The reporting about mismanagement at Ocean Spray was available to the Boston Business Journal on this web site, and there were credible people more than willing to discuss the situation candidly. The Boston Globe even reported on June 18, 1999:

But some analysts said the company under Bullock's leadership has suffered for strategic reasons that have nothing to do with the cranberry glut. They say the company never recovered from losing its monopoly in the 1990s amid competition from companies like Northland Cranberries of Wisconsin and Tropicana. "They didn't know how to deal with competition," George S. Dahlman, an industry analyst, told The Boston Globe.When Northland began marketing a premium line of 100% cranberry juice, Ocean Spray started a price war that hurt it more than Northland, Dahlman said.

The only opinion reported in the article critical of Ocean Spray is that they may have caused more problems by encouraging production increases or using Canadian berries.

With the lack of true investigative business reporting no wonder more and more people are relying on the Internet for a counter-point to the information they get in the traditional media.(See yellow box left.) One would hope that the owners of Ocean Spray who will ultimately decide its fate, and the large corporations interested in owning "The Wave", realize that Industry bogged down: growers concerned about being buried under cranberries amounts to nothing more than a puff piece that passes for journalism. It could easily have been published in the Ocean Spray Scoop.

Those "in the know" realize that with smart strategic leadership and the capital to expand into global markets, a multibillion dollar corporation will be able to bring in a management team and, in short order, set the cranberry industry back on course. If Triarc could undo the damage management did to Snapple when it was owned by Quaker, think what a large multinational could do for Ocean Spray.


The American Fruit Juice Market: a growth model
by James E. Tillotson, Ph.D., MBA
Professor of Food Policy & International Business
Tufts University

8/30/99 Since James Tillotson published his paper Juices in the 21st Century: A Futuristic Vision of the Global Fruit & Vegetable juice Industry on Cranberry Stressline, we have had numerous inquiries about his research and requests that we republish some of his previous articles. Prof. Tillotson has been kind enough to allow Stresslone to republish a 1997 article first published in Germany in Juice Processing (where he now serves on the editorial review board), and then tranlated and published in Japan a year later.

Since the article was published, Prof. Tillotson has pointed out that there have been a number of changes in the juice industry: Seagram sold Tropicana to Pepsi and Quaker sold Snapple to Triarc. This trend was not foreseen in 1996.

Tillotson thinks that we will see more of this trend. The Cranberry industry isn't the only juice industry suffering.  The domestic apple juice industry concentrate has gone from $10 to under $5 per gallon.  According to Tillotson, when a major marketing company buys into the juice industry it doesn't guarentee success. General Foods, Fraft, Royal Cola and P&G all tried it and failed with orange juice.

Click Here | Easy to print and quicker loading version


Investors in Northland have a Forum too

8/28/99 Yahoo Business and Finance sponsors numerous free message boards for investors. A sample from the board on Northland Cranberries:

OS purchase positive for Northland?
Juicy, Whether or not Coke is looking over OS's books I wouldn't care to debate. However, your logic in how this could be positive for Northland completely escapes me. Personally, I'd much rather be competing against those dopes in Mass. than against either Coke, Pepsi or P&G. These companies differ from Ocean Spray in a number of ways: i.e. they are marketing driven companies, they all have deep pockets, and they know what they are doing. How can you possibly come up with this being positive for Northland? What am I missing? Kostia Yahoo's Northland Message Board


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8/27/99 - Ocean Spray owners must demand easy access to any information which would be available to shareholders in any publicly traded corporation through SEC filings, and to information that is made public as a matter of course by diligent reporters who investigate the inner workings at other companies like Procter and Gamble or Pepsi.  During a period of crisis or upheaval, management and the Board should expect the kind of reporting from this publication that Coca-Cola had to contend with through the European contamination scare. Coke hurt itself by its initial lack of candor. CONTINUED | Easy to print version


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Who will decide the future of Ocean Spray?

The owners who have lost control of their company need to do one thing:
take it back.

8/22/99 - For the past few months, the single most puzzling question that many cranberry growers have been asking themselves is: why does the Ocean Spray Board of Directors seem hell bent on leading the company to destruction? Each action the Board has taken, from following management's lead in paying greater attention  to competitors' strategies than to their own, to attempting to shift blame  for the situation onto either an oversupply or to disloyal growers, to minimizing serious weaknesses in getting   product  to customers (many of whom are now former customers), to flat-out deception and lies seems to fly straight in the opposite direction of what logic, basic business wisdom, and simple respect for the owners who elected them would dictate. Is there a reason why they are doing this? CONTINUEDReady to print version


Cranberry Stressline has new domain name: cranberrystressline.com

8/28/99 The domain name cranberrystressline.com is now operable. Search engines that give preference to web sites with their own registered names will start placing the site higher up on their listings. Readers who want to tell their friends can simply tell them the URL address is cranberrystressline.com.

Cranberry Marketing Committee 1999 Crop Year Forecast

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by Mary Brazeau Brown
8/26/99

Mary Brazeau Brown has lived on the family cranberry marsh (R.S. Brazeau, Inc., Glacial Lake Cranberries ®) in Wisconsin Rapids for 20 years, and is currently the owner and President. She joined Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc., a cooperative, one year ago after marketing independently their 300 acre production. She served on the Cranberry Marketing Committee from 1983 to 1996, was a member of its Amendment Subcommittee, and was a facilitator for the current amendment process.

The Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937 (Act) provides the authority for the rules and regulations within the Cranberry Marketing Order (Order.) The Order has the Cranberry Marketing Committee (CMC) which is the only vehicle in the nation that can mandate any data collection and collect assessments for the purpose of a more "orderly market." At the CMC's March 1998 meeting, it was unanimous to "...recommend amending the Act...to make it appropriate for the industry needs and the Committee's mission." At its March 1999 meeting, it was unanimous to "...amend the Act to include cranberries so that at any future date if the industry's export plan would include paid advertising, the CMC would have the authority through the amended Act to use CMC assessments and FAS (Foreign Agricultural Service) funds to generically promote cranberries." CONTINUED


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by John McFarland

8/23/99

My wife, Barbara, and I are former Ocean Spray members who sold our cranberry property to Northland in 1996. The primary reason for our decision to sell was a profound dissatisfaction with the BOD and management, plus an absolute conviction that the industry was headed for a cliff and we did not want to be on board when it went over the edge.  We had been in the business for 50 years and had in fact hosted the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers summer field day and celebrated our 50th anniversary in the cranberry business just 5 weeks before we completed the sale. CONTINUED | Ready to print version


Consumers Share Deep Concern About Farm Crisis, Food Industry -- According to National Opinion Poll by Communicating for Agriculture

8/24/99 FERGUS FALLS, Minn., /PRNewswire/ -- American consumers are deeply concerned about the current farm crisis, and about the changing structure of the food and agricultural industries. Moreover, they believe that their needs are best served by a family farm system of agriculture, and they support spending tax dollars to support the farm economy, according to a new national survey. CONTINUED

 

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Northand vs. Ocean Spray

Saber rattling in cranberry-land

8/26/99 In an article in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel entitled "Bountiful cranberry crop could hurt Northland: glut likely to push prices lowers, hurting growers and fueling competition between Northland, Ocean Spray", optimism is expressed both by Northland's John Swendrowski ["We are confident that we have a marketing plan in place that will successfully sell the entire crop that we grow and (we will) buy from other growers"] and Ocean Spray spokesman Chris Phillips ["From a surplus standpoint (a bumper crop) is not good, but we have changed our focus and it sets the stage for one of the most aggressive campaigns in our history."]

However, the clash of swords can still be heard as Nothland battles industry leader Ocean Spray: Swendrowski: "We've proven we can take them on with our Northland brand, and now we are going to prove we can take on their juice drink business" Phillips: "We've recognized that we needed to go back and make a full sweep of the juice market."

Where does this leave the cranberry grower who just wants to see prices return to a decent level? LINK TO ARTICLE HERE

Hal Brown


Leveraged buyout:

Could Tom Bullock buy Ocean  Spray?

8/25/99 dot.gif (917 bytes) This explains how Tom Bullock and his "team" could end up owning Ocean Spray. LINK HERE

From: The Growth Company Guide to Investors, Deal Structures, and Legal Strategies: Practical Advice for Growing Companies and Private Company Investors by Clinton Richardson, is published in its entirety on the Web HERE "The Growth Company Guide contains more than 200 entries arranged in alphabetical order. Each entry describes a word or phrase that is commonly used by investors and entrepreneurs to describe an important fund-raising or growth company concept."


Independently speaking
by Brent Olson

Sign Language

8/26/99 Last week while I was combining wheat, a lady stopped to ask me if someone on a tractor pulling a baler had driven past where I was working.     Actually, at first she didn't talk to me.  She tried to get the that the one-finger wave is becoming very popular in urban areas.  The only difference is they seem to use a different finger than we do.  Continued


News Links

8/18/99 Cranberry Supply up, but demand is down, by Melinda Leader, New Bedford Standard Times

8/17/99 The Crisis in Cranberry Country by John Estrella, New Bedford Patriot Ledger


August: 17-21 | 9-16 | 1- 8

July articles: 22-31, | 15-21, | 8 - 14,| 1-7,

 

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