To have a good time his birthday annually, Don Vultaggio wears his pajamas to work and spends the day flipping pancakes and omelettes on a conveyable stovetop for his workers.
The sight is uncommon — however then once more, so is Vultaggio’s strategy to enterprise.
In 1990, he co-founded AriZona Beverage Firm. It’s now America’s top-selling iced tea firm, with upwards of $4 billion in annual gross sales.
Via all of it, the corporate has remained privately owned and stored the value for its iconic tall-boys the identical — simply 99 cents.
Vultaggio’s credit his enterprise’s success, partly, to creating a novel company tradition and retaining workers.
At AriZona’s headquarters in Woodbury, NY, employees not solely collect for Vultaggio’s annual birthday pajama get together, however there are additionally annual celebrations for Halloween and Cinco de Might — the iced tea launched Might 5 — and an Italian dinner that includes greens and herbs grown on the rooftop by Vultaggio’s spouse. Households are inspired to attend.
“The work I do affects the livelihood of everyone that works [here],” Vultaggio mentioned. “I take that very personally.”
Right here, he spills the tea on different methods which were essential to AriZona’s success.
Independence in any respect prices
AriZona is dwarfed by opponents corresponding to PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, however these giants’ public possession comes with strings hooked up: regulatory hurdles, shareholder pressures, compliance prices and layers of paperwork.
When one thing isn’t working, executives can spend months haggling with their board.
Being family-owned and privately-run permits AriZona to be nimble and agile.
If there’s an issue, Vultaggio mentioned, “We change it at lunch.”
In an trade the place product growth usually takes years, Vultaggio and co. are capable of roll out between 12 and 16 new drinks or flavors per yr.
This month, two of the model’s most unconventional choices are hitting cabinets: a 100-calorie vodka-infused iced tea and a one-gallon boxed chilly brew espresso. Vultaggio mentioned they every took about three months to go from conception to retailer cabinets.
The vodka drink — an improve over a earlier malt-based product and AriZona’s first premium boozy beverage — has been profitable in Canada. It goals to be AriZona’s reply to Excessive Midday and different health-conscious onerous drinks, an more and more profitable market.
Equally, the espresso beverage will give AriZona a foothold right into a booming chilly brew market, which was valued at $3.16 billion in 2024 and anticipated to develop to $16.22 billion by 2032.
Having spent years perfecting a chilly brewing course of for teas, and with all of the requisite infrastructure already in place, the transfer was a pure one for AriZona.
“Brewing is brewing,” Vultaggio mentioned.
Let the model converse for itself
AriZona has by no means ran a print or broadcast advert, as an alternative letting its drinks do the speaking.
“We make [them] taste good and price [them] fair,” Vultaggio mentioned of his simplistic strategy. “Take care of customers and they take care of you.”
Whereas opponents blow tens of millions on Tremendous Bowl advertisements (and reduce corners elsewhere to pay for them), AriZona leans on merch drops, natural buzz and partnerships with firms corresponding to Adidas, Marvel and 7-Eleven — all desirous to faucet into the corporate’s cultural cachet and zealous fanbase.
It’s taking that mannequin a step additional by launching “Club Zona” on Might 5, a $99-a-year subscription program by which super-fans will get early entry to limited-edition flavors and unique product drops.
It’s advertising by the use of group: much less about attain, extra about resonance.
Maintain costs constant
Whereas inflation and different exterior components have pressured opponents to jack up costs, Vultaggio’s savvy has allowed him to tinker with line gadgets and preserve AriZona’s iced tea worth at a constant $0.99.
Rising up in Flatbush because the son of an A&P grocery store supervisor, he labored almost each rung of the grocery and distribution ladders, even constructing his personal beer supply service.
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By the point he launched AriZona, when he was in his 40s, he knew how each a part of the availability chain labored and the way to fine-tune operations and preserve his — and clients’ — prices low.
Over time at AriZona, aluminum has been faraway from cans, rail has changed trucking the place attainable (and the remaining vehicles now drive at evening to for higher gasoline effectivity) and gear is more and more constructed in-house to abate vendor markups.
“If you’re a manufacturer who thinks it’s easy to just pass price along to a consumer,” Vultaggio mentioned, “you’re kidding yourself.”
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