Ocean Spray

In 1930, three cranberry growers decided to pool their resources rather than compete. Marcus L. Urann, a lawyer who started canning cranberry sauce, joined forces with John C. Makepeace and Elizabeth F. Lee to form a cooperative. Their goal was to expand the market for their cranberries. They started with jellied cranberry sauce, but soon introduced the first cranberry juice cocktail in the early 1930s. The business is structured as an agricultural cooperative, which means the farmers who grow the fruit own the company. This model allowed them to set stable prices and combine their marketing power. Over the years, the co-op grew, with farmers from Wisconsin, Oregon, and Washington joining by the 1940s. In 1976, grapefruit growers from Florida were invited to join the cooperative, adding a new dimension to their product line. A significant event occurred in 1959 when a government announcement about a potentially carcinogenic herbicide used on some cranberries caused a public scare right before Thanksgiving, devastating sales. This crisis forced the cooperative to diversify. Under the leadership of executive Edward Gelsthorpe, Ocean Spray focused on developing blended juice drinks like Cran-Apple, which proved highly successful. The company has remained a grower-owned cooperative, rejecting acquisition offers, including one from Northland Cranberries in 2003 and a proposed venture with PepsiCo.