Sunkist Growers held the cooperative’s 124th annual meeting on February 21, summarizing the organization’s 2017 season performance and seating the 26-member Board of Directors for the upcoming year.
“Careful and well-orchestrated management of last year’s crops, along with coordinated sales and marketing strategies, allowed us to achieve steady movement and strong pricing in 2017,” said Sunkist President & CEO Russell Hanlin. “Last season’s performance resulted in record member payments of nearly $1.2 billion dollars, the highest in our history.”
Sunkist’s leadership has been diligently focused on executing key strategic initiatives to maintain industry leadership and competitive returns to grower members. In addition to achieving these objectives, the management of Sunkist and Fruit Growers Supply (FGS) was consolidated to improve fiscal performance and best serve the constituencies of both organizations.
“Sunkist’s board and management continues to proactively evaluate opportunities to maximize efficiencies within the organization,” said Gerald Denni, who was re-elected as chairman of Sunkist’s Board of Directors during the meeting. “The management consolidation of Sunkist and FGS underway has been positive, and we are very optimistic about the synergistic benefits that this shared services model will afford both companies moving forward.
The organization’s for-profit businesses also performed well in 2017, supporting positive revenue streams and well-positioning the organization for future growth.
“We have tremendous optimism for the future of the Sunkist cooperative,” said Denni. “We have made many positive organizational changes, and also gained significant acreage last year that will further establish Sunkist as the leader in the fresh citrus industry.”
For more information:
Joan Wickham
Sunkist Growers
Tel. +1 (661) 290-8900