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.”