give it use of Sun-Rype's bottling plant, thus centralizing its production facilities. In order to initiate the takeover, Clearly Canadian began buying as many shares as possible from local apple growers who had been issued the shares over the last five decades in return for the process-grade apples used in production by Sun-Rype. At the time of the takeover attempt, Sun-Rype was still a co-operative organization, not a public company, so there were few ways for shareholders to sell their shares. Shareholders were given the option of either one Clearly Canadian share per Sun-Rype share, or $1.61 and a half of a Clearly Canadian share per Sun-Rype share. This offer finally gave true financial value to the shares, inclining many shareholders to sell them. Both Sun-Rype's board of directors and the BC Fruit Growers Association argued against the takeover attempt to shareholders, and on July 18, the board of directors offered an 18–page document detailing why shareholders should refrain from selling. On July 24, just days later, Clearly Canadian also sent out a document describing to shareholders why they should sell their shares. Both of these documents contained invalid and misleading information about each company, such as share values and purchase options to shareholders, so on July 31, the British Columbia Securities Commission issued an order for both companies to correct the statements. With the bid offer expiry date of August 7 approaching, Clearly Canadian decided to extend its offer expiration date to August 19. It claimed it was doing this to give shareholders more time to decide whether or not to sell their shares. This extension caused further rifts between the two companies, with Sun-Rype claiming reason for the extension, while Clearly Canadian stayed focused on acquiring as many shares as possible. With the final bid deadline fast approaching, Clearly Canadian used many tactics in an attempt to gain more shares, including sending out circulars, hosting public receptions, and talking to community press. In the end however, Sun-Rype, which spent $741,000 fighting the takeover, was able to prevail over Clearly Canadian, losing only 15.8% of its shares to the beverage corporation. Initial public offering The hostile takeover attempt by Clearly Canadian proved how unsatisfied shareholders were with Sun-Rype management styles and caused differences within the company, apple growing community, and investors. As a result, Sun-Rype finally went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange on November 12, 1996, with 2.35