Seald Sweet International has announced that senior vice president of exports Jim McCranie will retire on 1 September. He will be replaced by Les Crocker, formerly of A Duda & Sons.
Mr McCranie joined Seald Sweet 41 years ago and has played a key role in the development of the company’s export programmes, providing Asian and European customers with millions of cartons of fresh citrus during his career. Initially employed in the product placement department, he later moved to sales before being promoted to his current position in the mid-1980s.
“Jim is one of the industry pioneers responsible for gaining market access to Japan, Europe and more recently Taiwan and China,” a company statement said. “He is regarded by Seald Sweet’s Japanese partners as a true ambassador for the Florida citrus industry, which grew from nominal volumes in the early 1970s to over 12m cartons per year and Florida’s number one export market prior to the 2004 hurricanes.”
Mr McCranie was involved in a number of innovative product development programmes, such as the introduction of high-brix grapefruit to further develop market demand in Japan. Throughout his career, he has been active in Florida industry associations such as Florida Citrus Packers, the Florida Department of Citrus and Indian River Citrus League, as well as the PMA and United Fresh at national level.
Separately, Sunkist Growers continues its restructuring of its sales department with the appointment of Brian Slagel as director of business development. Mr Slagel was formerly regional manager for the Sunkist’s central division. His brother, John Slagel, becomes director of the company’s eastern sales operations centre in Pittsburgh, where the company has merged its eastern and central regional offices. Bruce Simmons, formerly western regional sales director, is now director of foodservice sales and will be based in Salt Lake City.
Sunkist has closed a number of offices as part of a cost-saving exercise, but continues to have account managers working in 17 locations – some of them virtual – in the US and Canada.
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