Sunkist - About

Al Williams,
Chairman of the Board
Al Williams, whose family planted its roots, both citrus and olives, in the soil of the San Joaquin Valley in 1914, joined the Sunkist Board of Directors in 1988. He served as vice chairman for three years before he was elected chairman. Williams is president of the Visalia Fruit Exchange, chairman and president of Visalia Citrus Association and Visalia Citrus Packing Crop which owns three citrus packinghouses, and he manages his family's orchards.

2000 Annual Report - Chairman's Message

This year was the second in a row to challenge Sunkist's growers, packinghouses, and marketers. Some challenges affected much of United States agriculture - consolidating markets, expanding worldwide competition for domestic and foreign shelf space and increasing cost of operations. Challenges unique to our industry included a late maturing navel crop, a large Valencia crop that exceeded demand, and continued depressed processed product prices for certain commodities.

Your cooperative responded to these challenges by working more closely with customers, by developing innovative trade promotions, by expanding our foreign markets such as China and Korea, by providing new packaging to meet customer demands and to enhance our product image, and by ensuring that the Sunkist trademark remained visible and in demand. While these efforts produced positive results for some varieties, the season was not successful for navel and Valencia growers.

One of my responsibilities as Chairman is to report on the state of your cooperative. It is gratifying to note that following a decline, membership acreage increased this year by 10,623 acres or 6.4% to 176,032 acres. Every citrus variety marketed by Sunkist showed an overall percentage gain, most notably tangerines, grapefruit, and lemons. While there were slight declines in Valencia acreage in some areas, total Sunkist membership acreage increased in all districts combined. Sunkist's crop share increased or held steady in all varieties except navels and Valencia's, both of which declined slightly in Southern California. And these figures do not include the more than 14,500 acres added to the Sunkist system on November 1, 2000 with the purchase, by a Sunkist member, of the citrus business previously owned by Dole Foods.

In 2000, when the federal government opened the U.S. market to Argentine citrus, Sunkist undertook a program to market much of the incoming lemon volume. Before making its decision, your Board of Directors looked long and hard at all sides of the equation. In the final analysis, it was judged that since the fruit volume was coming in anyway, the marketing of our members' fruit would be less severely impacted if Sunkist were to also handle some of the new competitive volume. In 2001, the results of the program will be analyzed to see if and how such global sourcing programs fit into Sunkist's future marketing strategy.

Just as the 2000-01 season started, Vince Lupinacci, our President and CEO for the past two-plus years, resigned. Vince brought many skills to Sunkist, and the system benefited from his tenure. We thank him for his guidance.

Sunkist is not an easy organization to lead. We are a large agricultural based cooperative with many intricately related parts, all requiring cooperation. Much of our fate often tests, not in our hands, but in the hands of Mother Nature. Our search for a new CEO is underway and the search committee will work diligently, yet expeditiously, to find the tight leader.

We are fortunate to have a firm and experienced hand at the helm in the interim - Chairman Emeritus Jim Mast. He knows our business in all its aspects. He is a grower. He was a long-term packinghouse manager until accepting this position, and he has hands-on experience in leading our cooperative. We are in good hands with Jim as Acting President and CEO.

I appreciate having had the opportunity to serve as your Chairman this past year. It has not been an easy year for many of us. We should all be grateful for a dedicated, experienced staff and Board of Directors. Programs and marketing plans are being created. Problems are being addressed. The Board has devoted many hours to the present and to the future of your cooperative.

Sunkist, starting with its grower-owners, is once again demonstrating, as it has repeatedly over the past 107 years, its ability to deal with challenging events. Be assured that your elected representatives will continue to focus on out basic mission - to maximize net returns of all varieties for its members.

Al Williams
Chairman of the Board