News Briefs

Ocean Spray Cranberries, Lakeville-Middleboro, Mass., has sold its Milne Fruit Products Inc. subsidiary to Wyckoff Farms. Milne, Prosser, Wash., is one of the largest fruit processing facilities in the Pacific Northwest, and had 2003 revenues of $30.8 million. It processes Concord grapes, cranberries, cherries and other berry fruits into 100 percent juice concentrates, puree concentrates, customized fruit blends and premixes.
X Café LLC, Princeton, Mass., announced it is nearing completion of its factory expansion in Portland, Maine, that will increase its one-shift capacity to 10 million pounds of green coffee beans per year. The expansion will give the company two completely independent production lines for its shelf-stable coffee extracts. The company also is planning a West Coast extraction facility and a satellite plant outside the United States.
InBev has moved into a new corporate headquarters building near the Stella Artois brewery in Leuven, Belgium. Nearly 600 executives will be based in the new offices.
PepsiCo and Discovery Communications recently announced a multimillion dollar media partnership to promote PepsiCo’s Smart Spot program. The one-year agreement includes six of Discovery’s U.S. networks, which include the Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Discovery Health Channel and the Travel Channel; exposure on Discovery.com; and is the largest advertising commitment to date for Discovery’s FitTV.
Constellation Brands has acquired a 40 percent interest in Italy’s Ruffino S.r.l. Constellation’s Franciscan Estates will oversee distribution of Ruffino’s premium wine brands in the United States.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently honored Granum Inc., maker of Choice Organic Teas, for purchasing clean, renewable energy at the Better Business Through Green Power Conference held in Seattle. The company uses wind-generated power for 100 percent of its electricity use.
Southern Gardens Citrus announced at last month’s Private Label Manufact-urers Association convention that it will now produce low-acid orange juice made from 100-percent pure Florida oranges at its state-of-the-art plant. “Using our vertically integrated manufacturing process, we can take our orange juice from the groves of Florida directly to the carton, and deliver it to consumers all over the nation,” said Charlie Lucas, vice president of marketing and fruit procurement. “We offer our customers a unique, fresh-from-the-grove experience.”