Ocean Spray Acquires Australian Food Tech Company

Ocean Spray has acquired a majority interest in the Australian food technology research company, Processing Technologies International.

The agreement will strengthen Ocean Spray's position in the worldwide market for dried fruit and food ingredients since the company will now own the patents to the core technologies used to create its sweetened dried cranberry products.

Upon purchasing the assets of Processing Technologies International, Ocean Spray formed a new company called Food Ingredients Technologies.

Ocean Spray's sweetened dried cranberries, after less than a year in national distribution, is the fastest-growing product and the number-three brand in the $450 million dried fruit business in the U.S. The company's brand of sweetened dried cranberries also is an ingredient in dozens of different food products internationally, including cereals, bakery goods, yogurts and frozen entrees.

"We're going to use the same extraction and infusion technology used to create sweetened dried cranberries to create a host of other fruit and vegetable products for markets around the world," said Graham West, Ocean Spray's General Manager, Ingredients Technology Group, who will be chairman and president of FITA.

In most cases, products developed by FITA won't be marketed under the Ocean Spray brand, but sold as ingredients to other food companies.

Ocean Spray is North America's leading producer of canned and bottled juices and juice drinks. A marketing cooperative, Ocean Spray is owned by 950 cranberry and citrus growers in the United States and Canada.