CORPORATIONS: Remade Minute Maid

Only ten months ago the stock of Florida’s Minute Maid Corp. was selling for ⅝|. Last week Minute Maid was one of the most heavily traded stocks on the New York Stock Exchange as it rose to 18. The stock was pushed up by a fast turnabout in the prospects for the company that pioneered frozen orange juice. In the red last year, Minute Maid turned in record third-quarter earnings of $1.8 million, and President John Michael Fox predicted more than $4.4 million net for the year.

Minute Maid, which had grown fast since its founding in 1945, got into trouble when it bought out Snow Crop in 1954 to diversify into other frozen fruits and vegetables. Last year Snow Crop came a cropper; a surplus of fresh fruits and vegetables depressed prices while competition cut profit margins. Minute Maid ran into further trouble in its own orange processing, where costs increased while retail prices slid. Though 1957 sales were $103 million, the company reported a pre-tax loss of $5,000,000. When a December freeze hit Florida’s citrus crop, Wall Street assumed the worst, sold Minute Maid down to a nine-year low.

But processing innovations enabled Minute Maid to save almost 95% of its frozen fruit with no damage to flavor. At the same time, Fox was getting out from under the money-losing Snow Crop operation. He licensed Seabrook Farms to process and sell frozen fruits and vegetables under the Snow Crop name, kept only Snow Crop’s orange concentrate operations. By moving Minute Maid’s headquarters from New York to Orlando, Fla. he cut costs and communication problems, trimmed marketing expenses by converting salesmen into brokers working on commission. Meanwhile, the growth of Florida cities has nearly tripled the value of Minute Maid’s grove holdings to $28.8 million. Fox plans to sell suburban acreage each year, buy more rural property for groves.

One thing Fox has not been able to do is cut prices. At an average of 28¢ a can for concentrate that makes a pint and a half of juice, Minute Maid sells for about 5¢ more than the brands of such chains as A. & P. While Minute Maid feels its quality justifies the price difference, it wants to increase its share of the market. This week Fox announced that Minute Maid is marketing a new concentrate with “the fresh fruity flavor and charm of freshly squeezed oranges,” hopes thus to increase profits and customers.