McCain Foods agreed to sell its aseptic beverage business to A. Lassonde Inc., a Canadian juice and drinks company. McCain will continue to produce its Old South and McCain brand frozen concentrates, as well as its Cool Quenchers.

Schenck AccuRate, Inc. has promoted Dirk Maroske to the position of president, and Neal Mueller will continue in his current role as chief financial officer. CEO Greg Fream has retired from the company.



The PMMI board of directors announced its new executive committee members for 2008. They include Jim Anderson of Marlen, chairman of the board; Randy Spahr of Packaging Machines International Inc., vice chairman; Bob Risley of Intralox Inc., past chairman; and Charles D. Yuska of PMMI, president & CEO. In addition, the PMMI membership elected four new members to the PMMI board of directors. They will serve four-year terms beginning January 1, 2008 and are Jack Aguero, Pro Mach, Inc.; Matt Lerner; Automated Packaging Systems, Inc.; Neal F. Nordling, Multifeeder Technology, Inc.; and Robert M. Storms, Moen Industries.

The Association for Dressings and Sauces elected its 2008 officers: Chair Steve Dabrow, Chelten House Products, Inc.; Vice Chair Jim Stangl, Ventura Foods, LLC; Treasurer Mary Jane Knight, The Carriage House Companies, Inc.; and Secretary Mike Bauer, Unilever Foods.

Sudipta Bhattacharya has been appointed president of the Wonderware business unit of Invensys. He follows Mike Bradley who has been president since 2002 and was instrumental in driving the HMI and SCADA businesses. Bhattacharya joined Invensys in August 2007 as chief software solutions officer. He came from SAP AG, where he was senior vice president of solutions management for SAP’s supply chain, manufacturing and product lifecycle management applications.



The American Meat Institute (AMI) has recognized 63 Smithfield Foods Inc. facilities in 26 states for significant environmental stewardship in their local communities during the past year. Five of these facilities were also singled out for AMI’s highest award, the Environmental Achievement Award, which recognizes environmental stewardship in five categories: resource conservation, pollution prevention, upgrades to improve environmental sustainability, environmental outreach to the public and environmental training programs.