Ocean Spray Acquires Cran Chile Cranberry Processing Business An announcement from Randy Papadellis, President and CEO
Today I am sharing the exciting news that Ocean Spray has acquired a strategically-located cranberry processing business from Cran Chile, located in Lanco, Región de los Ríos, Chile. This acquisition will help Ocean Spray accelerate global demand for dried cranberries and enable us to better compete in the global dried fruit market. Marking our first international acquisition, the new operations will also expand Ocean Spray’s global footprint and establish a Cooperative presence in an important cranberry growing region. Cran Chile will retain its growing operations and has accepted our invitation become a member of the cooperative.
As you know, Ocean Spray has laid out a set of strategic business imperatives that will help the company achieve its 10-year growth plans and maximize the proceeds paid out to you over time. Aggressively growing SDCs on a global basis and building scale through acquisitions are two key levers in delivering the plan and securing the company’s future. This acquisition is one of the opportunities in Ocean Spray’s Long Range Plan that will help achieve the grower return targets and other objectives in the Plan. I am confident that this transaction will provide long-term benefits for all of you.
The acquisition of the Cran Chile business puts us in the heart of an important cranberry region outside of North America. It will advance the Cooperative’s ability to operate globally and be more competitive in the global marketplace by:
- Improving our ability to produce and efficiently distribute dried cranberries from a strategic South American location to new and existing international markets.
- Increasing Ocean Spray’s capacity to produce dried cranberries by approximately 6 percent, or 12 million pounds annually.
- Providing a valuable source of counter-seasonal cranberries.
Ocean Spray intends to make additional capital investments to the processing facility to increase efficiency, improve yield, and add freezer capacity. We will also work to transition Cran Chile’s customers to Ocean Spray. All of the approximately 100 Cran Chile plant employees will become Ocean Spray employees. As part of this transaction, all of Cran Chile’s approximately 1,450 acres of producing acreage will be joining Ocean Spray’s A and B Pools.
This acquisition is an exciting milestone for our Cooperative as we strive to build a multinational Cooperative presence, and it will be a catalyst for additional evolution of our culture, business processes, and diversity.
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My THIS is certainly big news! Congrats to Gordon Swanson, owner of Cran Chile!
