Here's a story about Ocean Spray's history:

• Cranberries used to be available fresh for a mere two months out of the year

• Marcus L. Urann, a lawyer, left his legal career to buy a cranberry bog. He wanted to make cranberries available the whole year-round

Thread time

2)

• Canning technology was on the rise, & he figured that this may be the way to prolong the shelf life of the berries

• Urann's canned cranberry sauce and juice revolutionized the entire industry

• The shelf life of cranberries went from 'consume asap' to several months

3)

• Urann’s idea to can and juice cranberries in 1912 created a market that cranberry growers had never seen before

• By the mid-19th century, more people started growing cranberries, competition among bog growers was fierce.

4)

• In 1930, Urann convinced his competitors John C. Makepeace (largest grower in the US at that time), and Elizabeth F. Lee to join forces under the cooperative, Cranberry Canners, Inc.

This kinda feels like an anti-trust law case in the making doesn't it? Well, yes.

5)

• This would've been illegal but his attorney found an exemption for agricultural cooperatives in the Capper-Volstead act of 1922, which gave “associations” making agricultural products limited exemptions from anti-trust laws.

6)

• Urann wanted to turn it into a unified cooperative because he believed that growers can maintain the lowest possible price to consumers.

• In theory, the cooperative would keep the competition among growers at bay.

• It remains as a cooperative today

7)

• In 1957, Ulrann changed its name to Ocean Spray

• Urann 'borrowed' the Ocean Spray name from a fish company. He'd later on buy the rights to it.

Thanks for reading!

If you enjoyed this thread, you should:

1. Follow me I tweet brand origin stories

2. Subscribe to my free newsletter — I go into more detail about the brand origin stories I write here

SUBSCRIBE here https://brandoriginsfm.substack.com/