VALENCIA, CA - Sunkist Growers is celebrating not only its sixth consecutive billion-dollar revenue year, but also a milestone in its history for grower payments.

For the first time, Sunkist was able to issue grower payments of over a billion dollars for two consecutive years back-to-back.

“Sunkist has made many advancements to keep the cooperative well-positioned in the current business environment and last year’s results demonstrate the positive impact of those improvements,” Russell Hanlin, Sunkist’s President and CEO, said in a press release. “We made our third distribution to growers in 2015, and are committed to increasing these distributions annually. This program was accomplished through an effective cost containment plan and revenues from our for-profit businesses.”

In fact, the cooperative’s Grower Distribution program is one of its more notable changes in the past few years.

“The positive changes and growth we have achieved in recent years have been accomplished with the leadership and dedication of Sunkist’s Board of Directors, chaired for the past five years by Mark Gillette,” Hanlin added. “His commitment and leadership has been instrumental to our organization, and we are thankful for his valuable contributions to Sunkist.”

Sunkist’s licensing program and global sourcing business has continued to escalate, having now grown to 49 licensees in total and used by the organization to market approximately 700 products in 77 countries.

Also among those positive changes, the company noted its juice processing joint venture with Ventura Coastal, now in its fourth year, which has yielded positive results.

“All of these businesses continue to contribute to positive revenue streams and also help strategically position Sunkist for future growth,” Hanlin said.

Keep checking in with AndNowUKnow as we continue to follow that growth through 2016 and beyond.

Sunkist Growers