Twenty-five directors, bankers and Bain: the fate of Ocean Spray is in their hands
Hal Brown

8/2/99 Over the next few weeks, the Ocean Spray directors will put preconceived notions aside. They will ignore the cheerleading coming from their in-house pronouncements and pep rallies. They will listen to unbiased experts from Bain, one of the top three strategic management consulting firms in the United States. They will hear what investment bankers who have presided over multi-billion dollar transitions and transactions have to say about the value of Ocean Spray.  They will fully explore the pros and cons of taking all or part of the cooperative public with those who could care less about purely emotional loyalty to the coop that made CRAN a household name. They will meet in in secrecy with representatives of large corporations that are exploring the acquisition of Ocean Spray.

Each member of the Board will engage in private soul searching and will courageously  analyze their beliefs about what is best for Ocean Spray. If Ocean Spray changes, their roles will change, and they may either need to be more involved in understanding and authorizing the long term strategy of Ocean Spray, or less involved, or not involved at all. For some, the later two possibilities will come as a loss, for others, as a relief.

They will anaesthetize what continues to be a knee-jerk reaction from Ocean Spray management to blame the crisis in cranberries on competition from other handlers and purveyors of cranberry products. They will admit that far too much money has been wasted on efforts to win back the loyalty of "Sally the savvy 21st century American consumer" as she reaches for a cranberry juice that isn't Ocean Spray.

They will read the dire predictions of the Cranberry Marketing Committee and a light will go on -  the downslide won't be reversed by Ocean Spray winning back market share from Northland et al.  The cranberry industry will only be saved by assuring that demand - and this means worldwide - always is running apace with, or ahead of supply.

Twenty-five farmers will either decide the fate of the entire cranberry industry in the next week or two, or if they cling to old ways of thinking, abdicate this role and leave a void in strategic industry leadership. If this happens, they will set the industry back many years, and be responsible for the demise of Ocean Spray as industry leader. We will see the ascendancy of companies like Decas Brothers, Northland, Clement Pappas and Cliffstar, which will divvy up the spoils and share the market more or less equally with Ocean Spray.