Ocean Spray reporting reduced profits

LAKEVILLE — Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc. reports a 45 percent reduction in profits for the most recent fiscal year. Profits were reported at $73.5 million, compared with $280 million in 1998. Sales rose in the last fiscal year to $1.4 billion from $1.36 billion the previous year. With a glut of cranberries in recent years, the industry has struggled to retain its profit levels, even appealing for federal support assistance last year. The price of cranberries has fallen in recent years from a high of $80 a barrel to $11when the industry considers its break-even level $35 a barrel. Despite pressure from many share-holding members of the cooperative organization to sell the company to a large beverage conglomerate, the management of the organization in its report maintained that measures they have taken to turn the company around will prove successful.