agricultural marketing cooperative industry agriculture founded 1893 founder p.j. dreher and edward l. dreher headquarters valencia santa clarita california united states area served california and arizona products citrus website www.sunkist.com sunkist growers incorporated is a citrus growers non stock membership cooperative composed of 6 000 members from california and arizona . it is currently headquartered in the valencia neighborhood of santa clarita california . 1 through 31 offices in the united states and canada and four offices outside north america its sales in 1991 totalled 956 million . it is the largest fresh produce shipper in the united states the most diversified citrus processing and marketing operation in the world and one of california s largest landowners . 2 contents 1 history 2 organizational structure 3 the sunkist brand 4 today 5 examples of sunkist trademark licensing 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit women packing oranges at the sunkist packing plant redlands california 1943 in the late 1880s california citrus growers began organizing themselves into cooperatives with the goal of increasing profits by pooling their risk and increasing their collective bargaining power with jobbers and packers . the economic depression that began in 1893 worsened farmers situations and intensified their desire to self organize to their own benefit . 3 in 1893 p.j. dreher and his son the father of the california citrus industry edward l. dreher 1877 1964 formed the southern california fruit exchange in claremont a small college town near los angeles . it originally represented only growers of oranges in 1896 lemon growers joined as well . 3 the exchange soon included growers and groves in pomona riverside and san dimas in los angeles county and santa paula saticoy fillmore rancho sespe bardsdale and piru in ventura county ; by 1905 the group represented 5 000 members 45 % of the california citrus industry and renamed itself the california fruit growers exchange . in 1952 it changed its name to sunkist growers inc. organizational structure edit sunkist has three levels of organizational hierarchy local district and central associations . individual growers belong to a local organization ; local organizations belong to a district organization and district organizations belong to a central organization . the main purpose of the cooperative is to create systems enabling fruit from multiple growers to be efficiently harvested sorted into various sizes and grades and packed and shipped across the united states in response to shifting demand . 4 since inception the organization has significantly expanded its activities . in 1906 the cfge launched the citrus protective league a lobbying arm . 5 in 1907 it formed the fruit growers supply company to supply growers with materials such as radios tires shooks for fruit crates insecticides and fertilizers at wholesale prices . it later formed the sunkist s exchange by products company which developed markets for products such as citric acid sodium citrate lemon oil pectin orange oil and orange pulp . 4 6 the sunkist brand edit fruit crate label for sunkist california oranges in its early years the primary problem facing the california citrus industry was an oversupply of fruit . by 1907 california was producing five times the quantity of oranges it had been fifteen years earlier and orange production was continuing to grow as newly planted orange groves began to bear fruit . in response in 1907 the cfge approved the first ever large scale advertising campaign aimed at advertising a perishable commodity . the march 1907 campaign which marketed oranges to iowans as healthy and summery resulted in a 50 % increase of orange sales in that state . it also launched the sunkist brand the ad agency lord & thomas originally proposed using the adjective sun kissed to describe the cfge oranges ; the word eventually used in the campaign was sunkist made up by the agency so it would be easier to defend afterwards as a trademark . 7 in an effort to distinguish sunkist oranges from others the cfge wrapped its oranges in paper stamped with the sunkist brand . but in 1909 after sunkist learned that merchants were selling non sunkist oranges as sunkist it began to offer consumers a free sunkist branded spoon in exchange for mailing in twelve sunkist wrappers . one million spoons were claimed in the first year of the promotion further establishing the brand in consumers minds and giving merchants a reason to want to display sunkist oranges in their original wrappers . by 1910 the promotion had resulted in sunkist becoming the world s largest purchaser of cutlery . 8 the success of early campaigns prompted sunkist to invest heavily in advertising and in coming decades the brand was advertised in magazines and on radio on billboards streetcars and railroad cars on the sides of speedboats in school curricula and essay contests and in pamphlets distributed in doctors offices . its messaging aimed to reposition oranges in the minds of consumers . rather than being seen as a luxury to be enjoyed only at christmas sunkist wanted people to see oranges as essential for good health and to eat one every day . 9 sunkist also invested in marketing fresh squeezed orange juice and lemonade as superior alternatives to artificial beverages such as coca cola . by the mid 1930s one sunkist orange in five was being consumed in juice form often at soda fountains and sunkist juice was the second most popular soda fountain drink after coca cola . 10 by 1914 americans were consuming about forty oranges per person every year up 80 % from 1885 . 11 in 1915 in response to competition from imported italian lemons which at that time had nearly half the american market sunkist started aggressively marketing the benefits of sunkist lemons promoting their use as a hair rinse in tea in pie and as a food garnish . by 1924 california lemons had 90 % of the american lemon market . 12 today edit sunkist headquarters in valencia as of 2007 sunkist markets fresh oranges lemons limes grapefruits tangerines and strawberries to 12 states and three canadian provinces from 6 000 growers in california and arizona . from 1971 to 2014 sunkist was based in the sherman oaks district of los angeles ; in september 2014 it relocated to the valencia neighborhood of santa clarita california . 1 through licensing agreements sunkist has rented its trademark to other firms such as general mills and snapple for marketing more than 600 mainly citrus flavoured products including soft drinks and juice drinks vitamins and jellies and candies in more than 50 countries . it also owns two citrus processing plants which manufacture juice oils pulp and peels . sunkist s subsidiaries for marketing international sales and fruit purchasing include sunmac hawaii ltd. sunkist global llc in california sunkist pacific ltd. in japan sunkist far east promotion ltd. in hong kong and sunkist real estate ltd. in california . 13 sales in 1991 totalled 956 million 2 with nearly half of revenues generated outside the united states . 13 examples of sunkist trademark licensing edit sunkist soft drinks including the orange flavored sunkist orange soda and other fruit flavored sodas are produced by dr pepper snapple group under license from sunkist growers ; see sunkist soft drink . us sunkist fruit gems are a soft fruit candy produced by jelly belly under license from sunkist . jelly belly acquired the former producer ben myerson candy company . 14 us & canada sunkist fruit snacks sunkist fruit & grain bars and sunkist baking mixes are marketed by general mills us sunkist nfc orange juice and juice drinks are products of a. lassonde canada sunkist fruit first fruit snacks are products of ganong bros. canada 15 sunkist vitamin c & supplements are products of wn pharmaceuticals canada 16 sunkist juice and juice drinks can be found in japan south korea hong kong indonesia malaysia several persian gulf countries belgium malta austria and other countries . 17 see also edit redlands california los angeles portal companies portal food portal references edit a b wilcox gregory 18 august 2014 . sunkist leaving san fernando valley after four decades . los angeles daily news . medianews group . retrieved 14 september 2014 . a b schoenbrod david 1995 . power without responsibility how congress abuses the people through delegation . yale university press . p. 6 . isbn 0 300 06518 3 . a b cruikshank jeffrey l. arthur w. schultz 2010 . the man who sold america the amazing but true story of albert d. lasker and the creation of the advertising century . harvard business review press . p. 114 . isbn 978 1 59139 308 5 . a b sackman douglas cazaux 2005 . orange empire california and the fruits of eden . university of california press . p. 93 . isbn 0 520 23886 9 . american tariff league 1908 . the tariff review volumes 41 42 . american economist . p. 180 . mcwilliams carey 1980 . southern california an island on the land . peregrine smith . p. 211 . isbn 0 87905 007 1 . cruikshank jeffrey l. arthur w. schultz 2010 . the man who sold america the amazing but true story of albert d. lasker and the creation of the advertising century . harvard business review press . pp. 114 117 . isbn 978 1 59139 308 5 . cruikshank jeffrey l. arthur w. schultz 2010 . the man who sold america the amazing but true story of albert d. lasker and the creation of the advertising century . harvard business review press . pp. 114 117 118 . isbn 978 1 59139 308 5 . sackman douglas cazaux 2005 . orange empire california and the fruits of eden . university of california press . pp. 95 101 . isbn 0 520 23886 9 . sackman douglas cazaux 2005 . orange empire california and the fruits of eden . university of california press . p. 101 . isbn 0 520 23886 9 . cruikshank jeffrey l. arthur w. schultz 2010 . the man who sold america the amazing but true story of albert d. lasker and the creation of the advertising century . harvard business review press . pp. 114 119 . isbn 978 1 59139 308 5 . cruikshank jeffrey l. arthur w. schultz 2010 . the man who sold america the amazing but true story of albert d. lasker and the creation of the advertising century . harvard business review press . p. 119 . isbn 978 1 59139 308 5 . a b plunkett jack w. 2007 . plunkett s food industry almanac 2007 food industries market research statistics trends & leading companies . plunkett research . isbn 1 59392 068 7 . welcome to . sunkistcandy.com . retrieved 2014 06 02 . http www.sunkistfruitfirst.com 1 archived december 30 2006 at the wayback machine . soft drinks fruit snacks fruit gems worldwide licensed products from . sunkist . retrieved 2014 06 02 . external links edit official site sunkist label ucla digital library retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title sunkist growers incorporated & oldid 743517886 categories agricultural marketing cooperativesagriculture in californiaorange productioncompanies based in los angeleshistory of californiahistory of southern californiahistory of the greater los angeles areacompanies established in 18931893 establishments in california19th century in los angeleshidden categories articles with wayback machine links navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutschfran ais nederlands edit links this page was last modified on 10 october 2016 at 01 05 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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