Apple Juice Firm’s Controversial President Resigns

Tree Top, the nation’s largest manufacturer of apple juice and other fruit products, confirmed reports Thursday that its president has resigned. But the grower-owned cooperative refused to attribute Dennis Colleran’s departure to his opposition to use of the controversial chemical Alar.

Colleran, 53, stepped down Tuesday after a meeting of the cooperative’s board.

Informed industry sources described him as a vocal critic for the past three years of the use of daminozide, sold under the trade name Alar, on apples. They noted that, under his leadership, the company had refused to process and market Alar-treated fruit for the Tree Top label.

After Alar was identified as a potential carcinogen in a report released Feb. 27 by the private Natural Resources Defense Council, Colleran stepped up his efforts against the chemical, the sources said. Under his leadership, the Selah, Wash., company last month stopped processing apples treated with the growth regulator, which Tree Top had done to accommodate growers who used the chemical as long as they sold their products under other brand names.

‘Difference in Philosophy’

Before the cutoff, Tree Top had been the last remaining outlet for the 15% of the state’s apple crop that was treated with Alar last year. Those growers, one source said, “were looking for a scapegoat.”

Tree Top spokesman John McAlister on Thursday attributed Colleran’s parting to “a difference in management philosophy and direction.” Asked about the Alar reports, he said: “It is a private matter between Mr. Colleran and the board.”

McAlister said George Chapman, chairman of Tree Top’s board and general manager of Magi Inc., a fruit-packing cooperative in Brewster, Wash., would serve as acting president until a successor is hired.

Colleran could not be reached and so far has refused to comment on reasons for his departure. He is nationally known in the processed-apple business as president of the Processed Apples Institute and member of the board of the National Food Processing Assn.

Last year, Tree Top reported record sales of $255 million, up $68 million from a year earlier. McAlister said sales this year could top $260 million and added that the forecast was closer to $300 million before the Alar scare.

Alar extends the life of the fruit on the tree, which is particularly useful in managing harvests. It also tends to improve the color of red apples and to preserve crispness in the softer-fleshed apples for which Washington, the nation’s top apple producer, is best known.