USA Volume 13

64 65 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT SUN-MAID m The red bonnet worn by Lorraine Collett when she posed for her famous portrait was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. in 1988. m More than half of all Sun-Maid raisins are made from green Thompson Seedless grapes, a variety brought to California by English immigrant William Thompson in the 1870s — all from one vine that survived after a devastating spring flood wiped out the rest of Thompson’s crop. m It takes nearly 4.5 pounds of fresh grapes to make one pound of raisins. sunmaid.com LEGACY No image personifies the healthy, wholesome nature of California sun-dried raisins better than that of the girl on every package of Sun-Maid raisins. With her simple red bonnet, basket of grapes and smiling face, the Sun-Maid Girl’s image can be found on hundreds of millions of raisin packages located on grocery store shelves and in kitchen pantries throughout the world. The significance of her simplicity cannot be overstated, because raisins are simply natural. Many people want to know if the original Sun-Maid Girl was based on a real person. The answer is yes, and her name was Lorraine Collett. She originally worked for Sun-Maid as a company representative with several other women at the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. While back in her hometown of Fresno — the location of Sun-Maid’s original headquarters — a Sun-Maid executive saw Lorraine wearing a red bonnet in her backyard and asked her to pose for the painting that would later become the Sun-Maid logo. In 1915, the association began using the Sun-Maid brand name and the painting of Lorraine Collett. The original Sun-Maid Girl was modified for the first time in 1923, giving her a bigger smile, and the image brighter colors with a sun. This more contemporary look kept her in style with the rapidly changing 1920s. In 1956, the trademark was updated for the second time. The sun was moved off-center, intensifying the effect of the sunshine, with the bonnet casting a shadow across the Sun-Maid Girl’s face. Brighter colors and a geometric sun modernized the logo’s third update in 1970, with the brand’s name printed in yellow, giving a warmer, sunnier feel. The Sun-Maid Girl is a dominant part of the brand’s link with consumers. In 2006, in celebration of her 90th birthday, the Sun-Maid Girl came to life, which included animating her iconic red bonnet, as well as her surroundings of grape vineyards. Launched with a full-page ad in USA Today and on the Sun-Maid website, the Sun-Maid Girl aired on television with the marketing Sun-Maid campaign, “Just Grapes & Sunshine,” to highlight raisins’ natural goodness. While the animated Sun-Maid Girl helped bring raisins into the information age, she was not designed to replace the Sun-Maid logo. As a brand icon, she is as relevant today as she was more than 100 years ago. At the time of Superbrands publication, Sun-Maid was rolling out a new logo and package design. Superbrands USA superbrands.com Combine the quality and appeal of Sun-Maid with its global presence, and it’s easy to see why the Sun-Maid brand has become known as the World’s Favorite Raisin. MARKET Look into the kitchen cupboards and pantries in any one of the millions of homes around the globe, and you’ll likely find a box of Sun-Maid raisins. As the world’s largest processor and packer of raisins and dried fruits, the reach of Sun-Maid is profound. Although the fruits for Sun-Maid products are grown within California’s Central Valley, the millions of pounds of raisins it produces each year find their way into cereal bowls, lunchboxes and lovingly baked cookies across the globe. For more than 100 years, Sun-Maid has prospered as a result of its tradition of quality, consistency, innovation and focus on the consumer. HISTORY The story of Sun-Maid begins in the late 1800s in California’s great San Joaquin Valley. The saying goes that agriculture was California’s “second gold rush.” After the California Gold Rush, people realized that the central valley of California, with its rich soil and Mediterranean climate, was ideally suited for growing fruits of all kinds — raisins in particular. In 1912, a group of farmers founded the California Associated Raisin Company, a cooperative financed by small family farmers as well as the Fresno business community, to handle the processing, sales, marketing and financing necessary to expand raisin consumption throughout the United States and around the world. The new organization was intended to combat low prices and fluctuating demand, and to provide better economies of scale in processing, selling and creating stable markets. The organization changed its name to Sun- Maid Growers of California in 1922 to identify more closely with its nationally recognized brand. During the 1920s, renowned artist Norman Rockwell created a series of advertisements that illustrated Sun-Maid’s integral place in the traditional American household. These illustrations appeared in leading magazines of the time, including the Saturday Evening Post, Good Housekeeping and the Ladies’ Home Journal. Painted in 1927, Rockwell’s In a Wonderful Bargain Bag features Sun-Maid’s blue “Market Day Special” bag. PRODUCT Although raisins are its primary product, Sun-Maid’s offerings also include dried fruits of all kinds: prunes, apricots, peaches, pineapples, figs, apples, dates, cranberries and cherries. About half of Sun-Maid raisins are sold in the familiar consumer packages; the other half are marketed for use as an ingredient in a wide assortment of food products. Available year-round, raisins are easy to include in a wide variety of foods and are some of the most economical dried fruits available. Found in cereals, breads, cookies, granola bars, candies and energy snacks, to name just a few uses, the raisin is one of the world’s most versatile food ingredients. The production method for raisins has not changed much since those early years. In fact, making raisins today could not be simpler or more natural. In September, the ripened grapes are cut from the vines and laid on clean paper trays right on the vineyard floor. Temperatures on the trays can reach upward of 140°F. For dried-on-the-vine harvesting, the canes are cut to allow hanging grapes to dry slowly in the sun. The intense solar energy caramelizes the sugars, giving California raisins their distinct flavor and texture. Once the raisins are dried — after about three weeks — they are delivered to the Sun-Maid processing plant to be washed, sorted and packaged.