Logo via Sun-Maid Facebook.

Sun-Maid Growers of California is being recognized as one of the best managed companies in the United States.

The raisin grower cooperative joined 27 other U.S. companies in the U.S. Best Managed Companies Program put out by Deloitte Private and The Wall Street Journal. This is the first year the list has been limited to companies within the U.S.

The two companies selected privately-run companies with annual revenues of at least $250 million and who demonstrate excellence in “strategy, execution, culture and financials.”

 

 

“This achievement belongs to the entire Sun-Maid organization—from the cooperative of multi-generational family farmers to the talented teams who work in all our facilities and corporate offices,” said Harry Overly, president and CEO of Sun-Maid in a press release. “It was an amazing honor to be nominated, then selected after the rigorous application process. We’re successful thanks to a collaborative and devoted culture of smart, hardworking colleagues who are committed to a complete business transformation, while continuously reinventing what it means to snack with raisins.”

The raisin cooperative of 750 growers credited its marketing and product development geared toward younger generations as part of the reasons for being selected for the list.

In 2019, in what the company called a “quiet decade,” they debuted their first major marketing campaign “Grow Young” aimed at younger people.

Also in 2020, the company updated its iconic Sun-Maid Girl logo — a change not made since the 1970s.

Sun-Maid was founded in 1912. The company hired CEO Harry Overly in 2017. In 2019, it moved its headquarters from Kingsburg to Fresno.