Dive Brief:

• Sunkist, the giant grower co-operative, said revenue in the fourth quarter topped $1 billion for the fourth consecutive year. 
• Direct payments to the citrus growers who make up the co-op rose to $873 million from $838 million a year earlier.
• Sunkist's marketing and licensing business also had a good year, adding five licenses.

Dive Insight:

The folks at Sunkist are, understandably, recognized as experts in citrus. No one does a better job of growing, packing, and shipping fruit.

But our affection for Sunkist has as much to do with its for-profit licensing arm as it does with Valencia oranges. Sunkist now earns revenue from 49 licenses that are used to market some 800 products in 86 countries. That's an extraordinary level of market penetration for what is, essentially, a collection of farms in a few small areas in North America.