MLP selects new
president to oversee
pineapple unitDel Monte's Brian Nishida
will replace Doug Schenk,
who gets another post
The board of directors for Maui Land & Pineapple Co. continued its recent string of managerial and operational changes at a special meeting yesterday by naming a new president for subsidiary Maui Pineapple Co. and reassigning the former boss to a new division.
Brian Nishida, the former head of Del Monte Fresh Produce (Hawaii) Inc., will take over as president of Maui Pineapple on Jan. 1. Doug Schenk, who had served as president of Maui Pineapple since 1995, was appointed a senior adviser to Maui Agricultural Partners, a new Maui Land & Pineapple unit.
The new division will oversee Kapalua farms as well as the Earth Island Institute and Island Energy programs, said David C. Cole, president and chief executive officer of Maui Land & Pineapple. Cole came on board in October.
"Doug Schenk's deep connection with Maui's farmers, educators and entrepreneurs will enable us to rapidly forge alliances with like-minded innovators," Cole said. "We need a place where we can connect with the extraordinary entrepreneurial talent in our community, and nobody is better suited to make those connections than Doug."
Nishida's background in selling fresh pineapple will help the company further transition into fresh produce, Cole said.
"Brian has an unparalleled track record in growing and selling fresh Hawaiian pineapple -- an increasingly important segment for us as our product mix continues the shift to fresh premium products," Cole said.
The company started expanding its production of Hawaiian Gold extra sweet pineapple in 1998, and is just beginning to see the fruits of that labor as the profit margins are higher for fresh whole pineapple than canned, said Paul Meyer, executive vice president of finance for MLP.
During the third quarter, MLP's pineapple operations, which in recent years had been a drag on the company, experienced an upswing, reporting an operating profit of $225,000 as compared to an operating loss of $2.2 million for the same quarter the prior year. The company attributed the 8 percent gain to higher volume and prices of pineapple sales from Costa Rica by MLP subsidiary Royal Coast Tropical Fruit Co. Inc., as well as increased sales volume of Maui's Hawaiian Gold.
Although no employees were laid off from the pineapple division in the third quarter, Meyer said future layoffs could occur as the company continues to tweak that division by putting more emphasis on fresh pineapple than on canned. About 10 employees were laid off from that division in the first half of the year. MLP had 1,870 employees companywide at the end of 2002.
During the meeting, the board also expanded its membership to nine from six, increased authorized common stock shares by 800,000 and implemented a stock compensation plan for key employees and consultants. The company now has 8 million authorized shares of common stock. The three new board members will be announced next year.