US (CA): Cuties relationship turns sour
The business partnership between the two, which is responsible for having made the Cuties brand a household name, has turned sour. it all started when one part of the partnership - Sun Pacific - started turning out a new citrus juice using the brand, which is jointly owned.
Head of Paramount, billionaire business Stewart Resnick, says this dilutes and the brand and causes consumer confusion. He sued Califa Farms, a subsidiary of Sun Pacific.
Over the last 10 years Cuties have generated sales worth in the region of $300 million. it's a success story that tells of an impressive marketing investment and a product that fits neatly into the US consumer demand pattern - it's convenient. Betsy Hays, a PR expert, says that people no longer ask for clementines in the store, they ask for Cuties.
The success of Cuties has led more and more people to plant more and more acres with mandarins and currently, as much fruit as is grown, sells. However, some growers are concerned about the rate in which people are turning their land over to this type of cultivation.
33,000 acres were under mandarin cultivation in 2010, up from 25,685 in 2008 and there are another 6.092 acres still not ready to bear fruit.
Tulare Country citrus manager, Chris Lange, of Beresford Ranches, is worried that the market may be saturated by mandarins and unable to cope with so much volume of one product. He's waiting for the bubble to burst basically. He has already stopped planting mandarins and prefers instead to concentrate on such specialty crops as blood oranges. He also says he isn't at all surprised by the legal battle that is being fought by Paramount and Sun Pacific:
"Both are very assertive types of people when it comes to their companies," he said. "We don't know how all this is going to turn out, but we know there is lots to fight about."
Source: fresnobee.com
