Since fall 2004, Paramount Citrus Cooperative in Delano, CA, and Sun Pacific Marketing Cooperative in Pasadena, CA, have been involved in a joint venture to market clementines under the "Cuties" brand.

That alliance came to an end May 20, and going forward Paramount will market its clementines under the "Wonderful" brand. Sun Pacific has aquired exclusive rights to the "Cuties" trademark and will continue to market clementines under that brand.

Sun Pacific, a leading California grower and shipper of citrus fruit, kiwifruit, tomatoes and grapes, announced in a May 20 press release that it will continue as the exclusive sales agent for "Cuties" brand premium clementines and Murcotts.

"We now own the sole rights to the 'Cuties' brand and will continue to be the exclusive source for the high-quality 'Cuties' brand Mandarins that consumers have come to know and trust," Berne H. Evans III, chief executive officer of Pasadena, CA-based Sun Pacific, said in the release. "Cuties will continue to be backed with strong marketing support, and the supply of Cuties will continue to increase in the years to come. We will continue to ensure that Cuties deliver the highest quality eating experience, and we are excited to continue to work with our valued customers to deliver this excellent product to their consumers."

Cuties has experienced unprecedented growth during the past eight years, becoming one of the more recognizable and trusted brands in the produce department, and have significantly increased per-capita consumption that is driving the citrus category growth, according to the release.

Paramount Citrus today announced in a press release the same day that the acquisition of the Cuties trademark by Sun Pacific is "part of a strategic move by Paramount and Wonderful Brands to oversee all facets of the production, sale and marketing for most of the country's California mandarin crop."

Paramount Citrus will partner with Fowler Packing, "a significant and well-known mandarin grower and processor based in Fresno," the release stated. "Together, the two companies will grow, process, market and sell more than 60 percent of the country's California Mandarin crop."

"It's important for us to control our own destiny and oversee all production, marketing and sales, so we can guarantee our customers the unsurpassed taste and quality they've grown to expect," Paramount Citrus President David Krause said in the release. "We'll continue to lead the market as we grow, process and sell this uniquely delicious fruit."

"We started planting in 2000," Krause told The Produce News in a telephone interview May 20. As the largest grower of clementines and Mandarins in California, "we currently have 14,000 acres planted. Not all of it is in production. Our production levels are expected to double in the next five years."

Paramount has "dissolved our relationship with Sun Pacific effective today, and we will be unwinding that through the summer and each going our own separate ways," he said. The alliance was "fairly extensive. We had touch points in the relationship with Sun Pacific at several different levels. We owned our own assets, but we had a partnership for packing. Sun Pacific had the exclusive sales agent rights, and Paramount was the exclusive marketer. So we sort of separated the different functions."

Paramount began packing citrus during the 2012-13 season at a new facility here Delano. "Now we will be handling all of our own fruit this coming season, and we will be in complete control from the grower all the way to the consumer, including the sales and marketing function," Krause said.

"It will be the first time that we will be able to sell the same customers that we sell all of our other citrus products to," he continued. "It will allow us to load the same products on the same dock here out of our Delano facilities for our customers."

In addition to the Paramount Citrus sales team, "we are going to be able to leverage the Wonderful Brand sales team, which is across the nation over 100 people strong, doing in-store merchandising, to support the program and the consumer brand, such as our Wonderful Pistachio program, our Pom Wonderful products, Wonderful almonds etc. And now we will have these Wonderful Mandarins. So you are going to have not only a sales force here out of Paramount citrus but you are also going to have the Wonderful Brands marketing team nationwide, very different from the current go to market strategy," he said.

Both Paramount Citrus and Wonderful Brands are part of the Roll Global family of companies.

"The marketing and advertising programs that our customers in the marketplace have come to know ... they are going to see very much around this new brand" for Clementines, he said. "We are going to support it with ... a very big program" of consumer advertising, Television ads, trade advertising and public relations activities, "so our customers can expect us to be driving sales for them with programs and advertising and merchandising like they have never seen before in this category."

"Working together with our former partners, we have built a very strong brand," Sun Pacific President Bob DiPiazza told The Produce News May 20. "Cuties" has become "one of the most recognizable brands in the produce department, and we are going to continue to provide that high quality cuties product for our customers, so this is just going to be a continuation, as we look at it, of continuing to take care of our customers. and providing high quality 'Cuties,' a well respected and trusted brand."

It has been "a good partnership," he said. "But we have decided to go separate directions, and we feel that [at Sun Pacific] we will continue to do the job we have done for the last 10 years, selling 'Cuties' and providing our customers with a great product."

Sun Pacific, which began growing Clementines in 1999, packs all of its own fruit and is the major grower. The company also grows, packs and sells other products.

"We will be increasing our supply" of "Cuties" as more acreage comes into production, DiPiazza said. " We are looking forward to continuing that growt, and we will continue to offer strong marketing support."