Sunsweet Announces New CEO

Sunsweet Growers Inc., producer of dried fruit, has announced Brad Schuler's promotion to chief executive officer.

Schuler is a highly accomplished veteran of the company. This promotion marks a pivotal moment for Sunsweet as it nears its 110th anniversary and seeks to aggressively widen the margin of its position as the world's premier dried fruit brand.

"Brad becomes the 4th consecutive CEO to be hired from within based on demonstrated performance. Brad is clearly the right choice for CEO having observed and assimilated the collective learning of the previous three CEOs. There's no doubt Brad has a vision for the next decade and the personal drive to lead Sunsweet to its highest levels of performance ever," said outgoing President & CEO, Dane Lance, who is stepping down after a nearly 35-year career. "Brad embodies what we call the "Sunsweet Way" of stretch for results, do the right thing, take personal ownership, and work together to win."

Schuler's ascent to CEO reflects an impressive 25 years at Sunsweet, where he demonstrated exceptional leadership qualities and mastered the intricacies of Sunsweet's global business.

In the near term, Schuler states his focus will be continued reinvestment in state-of-the-art production assets, migration toward new enterprise software with cutting-edge AI capabilities, and organizational training to effectively utilize these new tools toward a vision of relentlessly building Sunsweet's global brand.

"Brad has demonstrated the ability to grow Sunsweet's business, and he's been pivotal in helping foster a unique business strategy and culture at Sunsweet that generates high performance toward relentlessly building the Sunsweet brand for the future," said Sunsweet Board Chairman Brendon Flynn.

Sunsweet was founded in 1917. Its prunes are the largest and most successful global brand. The company is owned by a cooperative network of more than 180 growers.