Ocean Spray(R) Announces Retirement of Chief Financial Officer Tim Chan, Appoints Richard Lees Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

LAKEVILLE-MIDDLEBORO, Mass., May 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc. today announced the retirement of Tim Chan, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and the appointment of Richard Lees to Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.  Mr. Chan will retire from Ocean Spray effective September 1^st.  Mr. Chan has been the CFO of Ocean Spray since 2000.

"I have the bittersweet task of announcing Tim's retirement," said Randy Papadellis, Ocean Spray President and CEO.  "Although we are sad to be losing Tim's daily input and guidance of our business, we are excited for him in his pursuit of the next chapter in his life.  Needless to say, the entire Ocean Spray family owes Tim a lot for his contributions to our business over the last ten years.  We clearly would not be the successful company we are today without him.  We are not quite ready to say good-bye yet to Tim, and we look forward to celebrating his Ocean Spray career over the coming months."

Richard Lees has been appointed to the position of Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer effective immediately.  Mr. Lees was previously Vice President, Finance and Treasury and led the Financial Planning and Analysis department for the last four years at Ocean Spray as well as the Treasury function for the last nine months.  Previously Mr. Lees has held the positions of Vice President and Controller of the Pillsbury Company, Chief Financial Officer of Dannon North America and Vice President of Finance for Gillette North America.

"I cannot think of a better executive to lead the next generation of financial strategy and success for this Cooperative," said Papadellis. "Rick's successful stewardship of the Financial Planning Department for the last four years has led to our success in planning and executing our financial plans. Tim Chan will be working closely with Rick and the finance team over the coming months to ensure a complete and seamless transition of the leadership of the Department to both internal and external constituencies."

During Mr. Chan's and Mr. Lees' tenure Ocean Spray has experienced significant growth in net sales and net proceeds. Since 2005, Ocean Spray has grown revenue +41% and profits +94%.  During that same time span Ocean Spray has grown return per barrel paid to its grower-owners +65%.

About Ocean Spray

Ocean Spray is an agricultural cooperative owned by 700 cranberry growers in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and other parts of Canada as well as approximately 50 Florida grapefruit growers. Ocean Spray was formed 80 years ago by three cranberry growers from Massachusetts and New Jersey. Florida grapefruit growers joined the Cooperative in 1976. Ocean Spray is North America's leading producer of shelf-stable juice drinks, and has been the best-selling brand name in that category since 1981. Ocean Spray posted record results across the board in fiscal 2009, including gross sales of $2 billion and net proceeds of $346 million.

SOURCE Ocean Spray