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'Hood Ornament

New center has them drooling over growth potential

By Christina Waters

Delivering the goods with a fresh attitude is the Odwalla creed, and maintaining the flow of fresh juice to South Bay markets got a boost in the September opening of a huge new sales and distribution node in San Jose's Alum Rock neighborhood.

Aidan Hosler, who drove most of the South Bay routes during his five years with the company and is now business manager for Odwalla's south San Jose area, is high on Odwalla's expansion. "There are 12 routes that run out of San Jose, seven days a week, and each route services around 30 accounts. With big accounts, like Safeway, our route sales persons return with deliveries five or six times a week. We're out there, we're motivated!"

Hosler, who now spends his time "managing, training and motivating other route sales persons," notes the "stunning growth" he's seen in the time he's been with Odwalla. "We have more people calling us for service at our new San Jose site than we can possibly fulfill," he says, citing needs for larger dollies and increased cooler size as some of the growing pains he's currently dealing with. One Palo Alto account he recalls upped its orders from $800 to $7000 each month within a year's time. "The increases have been huge."

Part of the secret of this expanding flow chart is how Odwalla envisions its critical point person, the key liaison between company and consumer. "We're sort of unique," Hosler contends. "Other companies call them 'drivers,' but we see our route sales persons [RSPs] as the prime contact with the customer. Our reps are educated, aware and interested in sales," for which, it should be noted, they reap competitively negotiated commissions. "Our field reps also really love the product--they're motivated by dealing with a product they believe is important to the health of everyone."

Odwalla's ideal RSP not only drops off the amount of Odwalla tangerine juice, Mo'Beta, Super Food, or whatever has been ordered, but "he's also writing his own orders--he sees something really moving, and he can take the initiative to increase the stock." The rep also pulls stock, "pro-actively," before the expiration date on the bottle. "The product is intensely temperature sensitive," Hosler notes. "We maintain our own coolers so we can control the cold chain," that constant 36- to 40-degree temperature Odwalla juices experience from whole fruit all the way to the consumer's lips. Hand-held computers also help each rep take initiative to respond to what the specific market will bear. "It takes the grunge work out of the job." Reps just plug in figures, or adjust product mix for the next delivery, and the computer does all the math and prints out invoices on the spot. "It shows clients immediately how cost-effective and trouble-free dealing with Odwalla is. They don't even have to service or clean or maintain the coolers. We do everything."

Hosler's South Bay client base includes Safeway, Lucky's, Nob Hill--as well as the independents, like Petrini's. "Those are our best accounts," says the Odwallian. But then there's Fry's Electronics--"They're a hot account for us." Add 7-Eleven, Netscape, Apple, 3Com, Intel and, soon, San Jose International Airport.

"The company's gotten a lot larger, and we've had to become more focused," comments the five-year Odwalla veteran. "We used to be just a bunch of hippies, but now we're publicaly traded, we're adults. It's a little scary."

"We're all working way too hard," Hosler laughs. "But it's because we believe in this. I couldn't do this for Wonder Bread."

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