One of the most important developments for Ocean Spray came in with its acquisition of Milne Fruit Products, Inc. A manufacturer of fruit concentrates and purees, Milne was once primarily a grape business but grew under Ocean Spray to process cherries, blueberries, blackberries, plums, raspberries, strawberries, and cranberries. Most importantly for its parent company, Milne tripled in size from the acquisition through the early s and became a significant generator of non-patronage revenue, which was reinvested in the cooperative for future expansion.
The only blight on the company during the eventful s occurred in , when it was charged under the Clean Water Act with illegally dumping insufficiently treated effluent from its Middleboro plant into the town's sewer system. While the cooperative reformed itself environmentally, it was also in the process of analyzing all of its internal operations.
A program called Right Turn Only RTO , dedicated to quality improvement, problem-solving, and teamwork, was adopted to aid Ocean Spray in remaining competitive while fostering an open working environment.
In the area of market research, crucial in a brand-driven industry, Ocean Spray decided to take advantage of new database technologies by entering into a joint venture with Information Resources of Chicago.
The result was a state-of-the-art software program called CoverStory that offered market information from universal product code UPC figures and trends. Other innovations included techniques to boost crop yields and forecast harvest results. Under John S. Llewellyn Jr. A very important development in involved a joint arrangement with PepsiCo, Inc. During the past decade, Ocean Spray has burst from obscurity to become one of the acknowledged innovators in the beverage industry.
But its strength has been notable only in supermarket aisles. To become an equal power in single-serve sales, Ocean Spray would have to spend millions building a distribution system. Throughout the s Ocean Spray rolled out a steady stream of new products. Craisins sweetened dried cranberries--a direct competitor to raisins in the dried fruit category--had their national launch in , with Cran-Currant Black Currant Cranberry Juice Drink made available for purchase in Ocean Spray also increasingly sought out joint ventures to extend its product line.
The co-op joined with Nabisco in to market a cookie called Cranberry Newtons. With PepsiCo, Ocean Spray that same year launched Breakers, a soft drink with 2 percent juice and available in three flavors. In March the co-op announced that it had signed tennis star Martina Hingis to a three-year spokesperson contract.
Meanwhile, Ocean Spray continued to upgrade its manufacturing facilities, combining just-in-time inventory systems and computer integrated manufacturing in a opened facility in Henderson, Nevada, that increased output without increasing costs. Bullock after a month transition period. Bullock had to contend with the after effects of poor cranberry harvests in two of the previous three seasons, which forced Ocean Spray to delay some product introductions.
He also soon faced the end of Ocean Spray's five-year relationship with PepsiCo after the soft drink giant announced that it planned to abandon the distribution agreement in May It had grown from number six to number two among makers of single-serve juices and drinks.
Makepeace from Washington and Elizabeth F. Lee from New Jersey to join him and form a cooperative so that they can share the profits and help each other. Later, it changed to National Cranberry Association. It was only in that it got its current name, which according to Smithsonian , was the name of a Washington state fish company.
Urann bought the rights to the name and the logo from the company. Ocean Spray cooperative is made up of over grower families in the United States, Canada and Chile. All growers own and manage their own farms — the average size of each farm being 18 acres.
More than half of these farms, according to a tweet by Ocean Spray, are owned by women. Some examples include the year-old Gottschalk Cranberry Inc. It's owned by Sue Gilmore, who is also a descendent of one of the founding families of Ocean Spray — the A. Makepeace family. Gilmore's grandchildren are seventh-generation cranberry farmers! According to their website , "25 percent of our farmers are fourth generation or greater. One would imagine that a cooperative which is formed by cranberry growers would have first launched fresh cranberries as their main product.
Apparently not. It took them 16 years to introduce fresh cranberries as one of the products that they sold. Their first product was canned cranberry sauce, which to this day remains a popular Thanksgiving side dish. A year after their launch, in , they gauged a growing interest in orange juice among people. So they entered the beverage market with Cranberry Juice Cocktail. According to a report , it was marketed as "a pleasant, smooth drink with delicious flavor and sure relief from faintness, exhaustion and thirst.
A glass when retiring promotes sleep and a clean mouth in the morning — even to the smoker. Till the 60s, Ocean Spray's most popular selling products remained their sauce and fresh berries. The juice cocktail saw only limited distribution, which is why they put their creative caps back on, and came up with the first juice blend in the world — cranberry apple juice, or CRANAPPLE, as Ocean Spray titled it.
What followed was another hit combination, cranberry and grape, or Cran-Grape. Another three decades would pass, before Craisins dried cranberries were introduced as a baking ingredient in the s. Ocean Spray had been launched for close to three decades before the Cranberry Scare of threatened to end its existence. A few months before Thanksgiving that year, the U.
Department of Health, Education and Welfare HEW , announced that a certain weed killer called aminotriazole was responsible for causing cancer in lab animals. This weed killer or herbicide was used by a few cranberry growers. And though Ocean Spray was quick to respond, and ban the use of the herbicide, the fear had spread among consumers, who, that year, decided to keep away from the cranberries.
Sales plummeted to record low, especially in the holiday season when they would otherwise be at their peak via Ocean Spray. What's unfortunate is that the scare was avoidable. Since they are heavily vested in their farming tradition—and in the cranberry itself—the cooperative continually generates healthy, wholesome products that improve the future for both farmers and consumers.
For our farmer owners, cranberry farming is not just a job but a way of life. Many of their farms have been passed down for generations and many grew up on the farms they run today. Their families work alongside them—and their families love enjoying the juices and products made from crops they harvested.
Every day they farm together, they are carrying their ancestors' ways with them. This connection to a way of life has sustained their family for decades, so it naturally leads to higher quality products and better practices.
Connecting farms to families builds a more sustainable way of life for our farmers and for our consumers. Ocean Spray is proud to be a farmer-owned cooperative, and all the benefits that our cooperative brings to consumers worldwide. Find a store. Choose your Country or Region. Virgin Islands English. Join Cranberry Club.
I want to be notified by email about upcoming Ocean spray events, promotions, and coupons. The First Name field is required. The Last Name field is required. The Email Address field is required. Email address is not in a correct format. The Password field is required. The Confirm Password field is required. There is, of course, only so much that political jockeying can do: The one person who can truly save the day is Papadellis. This time, though, Papadellis is up against far tougher obstacles than a mere surplus of fruit.
As the industry gears up for another harvest this year, Massachusetts farmers who depend on Ocean Spray are waiting to see if Papadellis can pull off another miracle.
P apadellis likes to say that Massachusetts is the spiritual home of the cranberry. Pilgrims likewise turned to it for sustenance, and in European settlers concocted the first batch of cranberry juice. Whalers during the s added cranberries to their diet to stave off scurvy, and by the early s, families whose farms had the acidic soil, sand, and cold winters that the vines need to grow were prospering. More than bogs peppered throughout the state account for 30 percent of the global cranberry acreage.
While most CEOs negotiate the lowest price for their raw materials, Papadellis is expected to buy cranberries at the highest possible price. Craisins were both a savior and a scourge: They hoisted profits, but the more Ocean Spray produced, the more cranberry-juice concentrate it was left holding.
In he started cooking and canning a cranberry sauce under the name Ocean Spray Preserving Company. It took a while for it to catch on, but by Urann finally had a hit on his hands, selling , cases of his gelatinous cranberry sauce to consumers.
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