|
Press Release Northland Cranberries, Inc. will close bottling plant located in Dundee, New York 5/7/02 (3:30PM CDT) Wisconsin Rapids, WI -- Northland Cranberries, Inc. (OTC: NRCNA), manufacturer of Northland brand 100% juice cranberry blends and Seneca brand fruit juice products, today reported it intends to close its bottling plant located in Dundee, New York at the end of June, 2002. Northland will move a significant amount of the Dundee production to Northland’s Jackson, Wisconsin facility and utilize various co-packers for the balance of the Dundee production. “Attempts to sell the facility as an ongoing operation have been unsuccessful to date due to significant excess capacity within the industry,” said John Swendrowski, Northland’s Chief Executive Officer. Northland’s decision was a part of the company’s intention to continue to reduce costs and re-deploy capital into building the Northland brand. “We expect the closure of the facility will improve operating costs and fixed overhead thus generating additional capital to invest into increasing the value of the cranberries we grow and purchase from other growers,” said Swendrowski. Northland is a vertically integrated grower, handler, processor and marketer of cranberries and value-added cranberry products. The company processes and sells Northland brand 100% juice cranberry blends, Seneca brand juice products, Northland brand fresh cranberries and other cranberry products through retail supermarkets and other distribution channels. Northland also sells cranberry and other fruit concentrates to industrial customers who manufacture juice products. Northland is the only publicly-owned, regularly-traded cranberry company in the United States, with shares traded on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board under the listing symbol NRCNA. SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS The Company makes certain “forward-looking statements” in this press release, such as statements about future plans, goals and other events which have not yet occurred. These forward-looking statements are intended to qualify for the safe harbors from liability provided by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can generally be identified because they include words such as the Company “believes,” “anticipates,” “expects” or words of similar import. Forward-looking statements include, among others, statements about actions by the Company’s competitors, sufficiency of the Company’s working capital, potential operational improvements and efforts to return to profitability, sales and marketing strategies, expected levels of trade and marketing spending, anticipated market share of the Company’s branded products, expected levels of interest expense and net revenues, and disposition of significant litigation. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and the actual results could differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, risks associated with (i) the Company’s ability to reinvigorate its Northland and Seneca brand names, regain lost distribution capabilities and branded products market share and generate increased levels of branded product sales; (ii) the level of cranberry inventory held by industry participants; (iii) the development, market share growth and consumer acceptance of the Company’s branded juice products; (iv) the disposition of certain litigation related to the sale of the net assets of the Company’s private label juice business; (v) the impact of a marketing order or lack of a marketing order of the United States Department of Agriculture relative to the 2002 crop year; (vi) agricultural factors affecting the Company’s crop and the crop of other North American growers; and (vii) the Company’s ability to comply with the terms and conditions of, and to satisfy its responsibilities under, its new credit facilities and other debt agreements. You should consider these risks and factors and the impact they may have when you evaluate these forward-looking statements. These statements are based only on the Company’s knowledge and expectations on the date of this press release. The Company disclaims any duty to update these statements or other information in this press release based on future events or circumstances.
|