TALK ABOUT STRESS!
Sunday, 06-Jun-1999 17:54:39

Fred and Susan Mast
from the Stressline Forum

I have been sitting here thinking about what has happened. Why? Where did we go wrong? How much more can we take? How do we tell our CEO & our Directors that "we own the company and you work for us, not that we work for you"!!!!!!!

I have been thinking for a long time that something just does not add up. Why in our fiscal year end was our growth up 2.9% and our growth of employees up 2.2%? Why with our growth up 2.9% are our employee numbers up almost as much as our growth? The growth figure is deceiving. Someone is not doing their job. When you knew (you have been saying for a long time) that we were going to be going into some hard times, were you not being more efficient with the personnel that you were hiring. It does not take 10 people under one person to tell that person what or how to do the job that he or she was hired to do. It is time that we go back to basics!!!!

When Ocean Spray started it did not take half of the personnel that we have now. You say we are going into the computer age where it is supposed to save us money & cut down on personnel. If this is so, then when we are spending money to be more efficient, why are we increasing personnel? Yes you have cut 100 jobs....but look what they are....the workers that make the money for us. It appears to me that management is costing us more than we can afford.

I wish every Board of Director & the CEO could be in the meeting with us on June 17th, 1999. Maybe you can answer the questions that we are going to have to....and we have no answer!!!!

Because of the way you are running our company and the drastic price cuts with no notice...we are having to file Chapter 12, Farm Reorganization, to save our farm. We are not a large grower & maybe you don't care what happens to us, but consider this:

THERE ARE A LOT OF GROWERS IN TROUBLE RIGHT NOW BECAUSE OF THE DECISIONS YOU HAVE MADE. I HAVE BEEN TOLD BY A RELIABLE SOURCE THAT AS MANY AS 30 GROWERS IN OUR AREA ARE OR ARE ABOUT TO GO UNDER!

OUR FUTURE IS IN A JUDGE'S HANDS!!!!

HE NOW HAS THE AUTHORITY TO DO ANYTHING THAT HE WANTS WITH OUR FARM....INCLUDING CANCELING OUR OCEAN SPRAY CONTRACT....

If enough growers are in the same position as we have had to go...seeing what is happening in the management of our company, DO YOU THINK THAT CANCELING CONTRACTS MIGHT HAPPEN?

If this happens you have fewer growers & without the berries to produce the juice, sauce, etc., where does that leave Ocean Spray?? You will eventually cease to exist. Do you jump the sinking ship or do you wait & go down with it???

If we the growers can see something stinks, then why doesn't our Board of Directors see it too & do something about it.

If the directors don't have what it takes to save our company & make changes where they need to be changed then maybe we should....

A) RECALL & REPLACE SOME OF OUR DIRECTORS!!!

B) REPLACE OUR CEO WITH SOMEONE WITH THE BUSINESS EXPERTISE AND AGGRESSIVENESS TO TURN OUR COMPANY AROUND!!!!

I DO NOT WANT TO LOSE OUR FARM & I DO NOT WANT TO SEE OCEAN SPRAY GO DOWN WITHOUT A FAIR FIGHT!!!

I have some questions & papers that I would like to see:

1. A 10-K...this would show what has been going on even more then a P&L Statement.

2. A revision of the vote per share. We as small growers have no say. It is my understanding that 5 growers in Ocean Spray have the majority of shares.

3. A better explanation of what has happened. Every time we receive a letter, it is a different excuse.

WE ARE TIRED OF EXCUSES!!!!!

4. What happened to the money promised a couple of years ago when the independents were getting much higher dollars and you said:

HANG IN THERE WE WILL BE BETTER OFF IN THE LONG RUN BECAUSE WE CAN SURVIVE WHEN THEIR PRICES ARE DOWN AND WE PROMISE YOU A $1 INCREASE A YEAR FOR THE NEXT 10 YEARS????

5. When or if you take a vote to terminate our CEO, I would like to see a list of our directors and how they voted. This should be available to us because we voted for them as directors to represent us.

In fact, I think that in our minutes, any votes taken & how each director voted should be reported to us!!!

The CEO was to give weekly reports to show what he is doing to make things better. My understanding is that this was not done, and things are getting worse. How many more chances are we going to give him????

I say the CEO goes or maybe some of the directors need to be replaced that seem unable to make the necessary decisions.

We do not want Ocean Spray to go down without doing anything and everything that we can to help us all survive.

AS A DIRECTOR THINK OF THE COMPANY & ALL OF THE GROWERS DEPENDING ON YOU. DO NOT BE LIKE THE CREW ON THE TITANIC AND SINK OUR SHIP BY IGNORING ALL OF THE WARNINGS!!

ON JUNE 17TH WE WILL BE TRYING TO ANSWER QUESTIONS TO OUR CREDITORS, HOPING THAT YOU WILL MAKE THE RIGHT DECISIONS SO THAT WE CAN CONTINUE IN OCEAN SPRAY & SURVIVE!

Fred & Susan Mast
Ocean Spray growers

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