Ocean Spray held their Annual Growers Meeting last week, and Pine Island Cranberry was well represented! Several members of the Haines family spent a week in Florida, learning more about the coop’s plans for the future and enjoying the Florida sunshine!

Family members in attendance were all pleased with the highly engaging presentations. “It was really cool to hear more about the marketing side. Up here, we’re entirely focused on production and don’t really worry about the marketing and selling,” says fifth-generation grower Mike Haines. “But it’s obviously just as important to the business as the actual fruit production. I really learned quite a bit from talking to some of the marketing people; Jeremy [Fenstermaker] and I had a great talk with Peter Wyman [Senior VP of Global Business Development], asking him how they get people unfamiliar with cranberries to try our products. It was fascinating!”

Mike and Jeremy were also really impressed with Aravind Cherukuri [Managing Director, Global Business Development]. “People were genuinely pumped up when he made his presentation,” Mike says. “He brought a lot of energy to the room, and I learned a lot about how Ocean Spray approaches different markets and what kind of steps we need to take.” Jeremy’s thoughts were similar: “Aravind’s enthusiasm was contagious,” he says. “It was really cool to see the expansion, and how things have changed as we move into a global market.”

Another huge hit: the opportunity to try new products being released in the next few months! We were very excited to get a close-up look for you guys. NOW: an exclusive look at what you can expect to see from Ocean Spray!

…Oh. Sorry, folks. Maybe next time!

It would be remiss of us not to thank the entire Grower Relations team for doing such a spectacular job. Cranberry growers work hard and play hard, and everyone at HQ put together some amazing events and activities to ensure we’d all have fun doing both! From charismatic speakers to touring grapefruit operations to spring baseball to unforgettable evenings in the theme parks…Ocean Spray made sure that we had an unforgettable week, and every single member of the Haines family is grateful for the opportunity!

And as always, we’ll let CEO Bill Haines get in the last word: “It was a great event, and great to meet with so many growers from all over the world. I’m excited to see the energy and the new ideas that were presented at the general sessions.”

Thanks, Ocean Spray!