Sunkist Growers still reeling from the cost of December's freeze.

Sunkist Growers still reeling from the cost of December's freeze

As a result of December's freezing temperatures and citrus crop damage, Sherman Oaks-based Sunkist Growers Inc. laid off 72 employees and scaled back on its annual meeting as its growers have lost about 43 percent of their crops. At the beginning of the season, the marketing cooperative estimated that the growers would produce 83 million 40-pound cartons of citrus fruit during the growing season (Jan. 31 to Oct. 31). The estimate has sinced been sliced to 48 million, said Sunkist spokesman Curt Anderson.

"This is the most severe freeze that we've had in our history," he said.

The company eliminated 16 percent of its marketing support staff, most of whom worked at corporate headquarters. Many of the positions were in data processing, while some of the eliminated staff members worked in the field.

"We're going to still cover the bases, hopefully, with the people we have," Anderson said.

Instead of holding their annual meeting in a hotel this year, the growers saved money by holding it in-house. "We just had coffee and juice and donuts," he said.

In addition, "We always have a very substantial annual sales meeting with the United States and Canada people. That has been postponed," Anderson said.

Normally the meeting is held in a designated spot for four or five days, but now several gatherings are being planned in different regions.

Part of Sunkist's budget is still intact, namely the communication mechanisms with the growers.

The drought isn't helping matters. If next year is as dry as this one, the growers will have a very rough time, Anderson said.

But disregarding the drought, he took an optimistic view of future crops.

"We think that overall in the San Joaquin Valley we will have . . . about a 70 percent crop," he said.