Don Vultaggio describes running AriZona Beverage Company as his co-founder John Ferolito stepped back from daily operations to pursue personal interests.
Assertion Not checkable as stated
AriZona recently earned its co-founder's entire buyout amount in one year
“Absolutely. You know, what we earned last year was what to get bought out for, you know.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Teamsters repeatedly threatened AriZona founders during early beer distribution days
“Yeah, we were threatened a lot, you know, we were threatened by the Teamsters about, you know, you can't do that, you know, that's not allowed, you know, because the Schaefer delivery guy, we were delivering Schaefer.”
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Competing iced tea brands cut costs by using fake artificial flavorings
“The typical response in the flavor category was you know, you don't have to put a lot of tea in on a tea, you just put flavor, you can kind of Fake it up. And then I realized that what other guys are not doing is putting real ingredients in because, you know, …”
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AriZona's can manufacturing cost is lower today than 33 years ago
“You know, our cost of making a can today is less than it cost us 33 years ago to make the same can.”
Disclosure
Vultaggio refuses to sell AriZona Beverage Company to private equity
“I'm not for sale.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
AriZona built a 1.25 million square foot factory with zero debt
“I built a factory in New Jersey that we needed desperately. You know, I'm very proud of it. It's a 1,250,000 square feet of a building that every single piece of it we own, we paid for. We don't have any company debt. We have no banks. We have no lending insti…”