Sunkist Growers announced the cooperative’s sixth consecutive billion-dollar revenue year at the company’s annual meeting on February 17. Moreover, for the first time in Sunkist’s history, for two consecutive years the organization has issued grower payments of over a billion dollars.
“Sunkist has made many advancements to keep the cooperative well-positioned in the current business environment and last year’s results demonstrate the positive impact of those improvements,” said Sunkist President and CEO Russell Hanlin.
Notable changes in the past few years include the implementation of the cooperative’s Grower Distribution program. “We made our third distribution to growers in 2015, and are committed to increasing these distributions annually. This program was accomplished through an effective cost containment plan and revenues from our for-profit businesses,” added Hanlin.
Sunkist’s juice processing joint venture with Ventura Coastal has yielded positive results for the organization. Now in its fourth year, the business partnership continues to generate improved by-product earnings, more timely payments and greatly contributes to grower distributions. Sunkist’s robust licensing program and global sourcing business is also advancing. With 49 licensees in total, the Sunkist brand is used to market approximately 700 products in 77 countries. “All of these businesses continue to contribute to positive revenue streams and also help strategically position Sunkist for future growth,” said Hanlin.
Another significant event for the cooperative was Sunkist’s headquarter relocation to Valencia in 2014, which strengthened Sunkist’s financial position and also geographically centralized its business operations to the cooperative’s grower base.
“The positive changes and growth we have achieved in recent years have been accomplished with the leadership and dedication of Sunkist’s Board of Directors, chaired for the past five years by Mark Gillette. His commitment and leadership has been instrumental to our organization, and we are thankful for his valuable contributions to Sunkist,” said Hanlin.
As his term as Chairman of Sunkist’s Board of Directors comes to a close, the contributions of Mark Gillette, President of Sunkist-affiliated Gillette Citrus Inc. of Dinuba, Calif. were recognized during the meeting. Gillette served as Chairman of the Board for five consecutive terms, the maximum time allowed under Sunkist by-laws.
For more information:
Joan Wickham
Sunkist
661-290-8777