I don't know about you guys but the statement below from the CEO of the company is way off base. Cheap pricing, or as TIME mag put it "solid" pricing does not insure shelf space.
I would be very pissed off if I were a salesman for Arizona Tea and my CEO made a statement like that. Salesmaen are your frontline, treat them better , if only by words.

"Time declares that Arizona has grown through solid pricing, clever, interior design-worthy packaging and healthy new products, and describes Vultaggio’s rise through beer distributorships to the tea business, where he understood that the real opportunity lay in pricing. According to Vultaggio, his sales force had an easy time:

"Some of those guys couldn't sell lemonade in Saudi Arabia in the summer, and they come back with orders," he says.

That is nerve (chutzpah) to say the least.
I can’t stand Arizona products. I think it’s cheep crap in a pretty package. Some of the worst crap on the market in fact.
It’s no wonder the product is so poor (even if it does sell well) when the boss has an attitude like that toward his sales people.

Gee this CEO has very poor bed side manors.
Even if those were his true thoughts, disrespecting his sale staff and saying what he said is thoughtless to say the least.

To be successful in the beverage business, it takes hard sweat and great skill no matter how good your product is or what's the name of the company. This CEO is the reason that good companies fail. Kill the moral of your front line workers and you slowly kill your company.

[ 04-04-2006, 04:28 PM: Message edited by: Mr Zabe ]

You guys are right. He better change his attitude or some guys will just not work as hard for him. I'd be very upset with my CEO if he said something like that.

I completely agree...if his employees catch wind of this he may have to do more than drive a forklift! LOL! (and I personally can't stand micro-managers) He also said:

In the story, Vultaggio is quoted as calling Lipton “garbage,” says that Coke marketing executives are “out there covering their asses,” and declares that Cadbury-Schweppes owners no longer consider Snapple “even worth talking about.”

Very bold words! Lipton and Snapple do very well here...and I honestly don't see the point in trashing other brands of teas.

Originally posted by CStoreCatMan:
I completely agree...if his employees catch wind of this he may have to do more than drive a forklift! LOL! (and I personally can't stand micro-managers) He also said:

In the story, Vultaggio is quoted as calling Lipton “garbage,” says that Coke marketing executives are “out there covering their asses,” and declares that Cadbury-Schweppes owners no longer consider Snapple “even worth talking about.”

Very bold words! Lipton and Snapple do very well here...and I honestly don't see the point in trashing other brands of teas.

The whole article left a bad tatse in my mouth about Arizona Iced Tea.
I have no problem with a CEO that is comfortable in the warehouse, it shows the rest of the team that hes been there and done that and understands what it is like to do that job. But cutting down any part of your organization, especially the part that is responsible for getting your product on the shelf, is reprehensible.

It would not surprise me if he has the same sort of contempt for the consumer as well.

Here in Mexico, Arizona teas are available in OXXO and Bodega Comercial Mexicana, I haven't tried it, I wonder how does those teas taste but... do that teas really taste too bad?

[ 04-04-2006, 08:37 PM: Message edited by: Ramón Coca-Colero Anti-Peje ]

I don’t know about the Arizona tea in Mexico, but here in the United States Arizona is of the lowest quality in the most attractive package. Arizona put every thing into the look of the product and as little as possible into the product it self.
Don’t waste your pesos on it.

IMO Arizona Ice Tea and flavors taste like 80% HFC and 20% instant tea and flavoring. IMO it sells because of it's tall can and cheap price. As far as quality and taste, sweetened home brew ice tea would be well worth the effort than this line up of ice teas. My two cents.