AriZona’s own sales team called 99-cent can a dumb idea. It now sells a billion of them.
One of Don Vultaggio’s own sales managers told him that printing 99 cents on the can was the dumbest idea he had ever heard. AriZona sold fewer than 50 million big cans that year. This year, it expects to sell over a billion.
Vultaggio, founder and chairman of Arizona Beverage Company, gives Ian Schwartzman the mechanics: how the printed price works, why the company carries no debt and spends nothing on advertising, and why the board is him and his two sons at lunch.
Also: the aluminum supplier who colluded to squeeze him out, the bank that told him to stick to alcohol, and the plant private equity shut down that he reopened.
Timestamps
00:00 The 99 cents, and why it is printed on the can
00:54 What AriZona spends on advertising
01:42 The grocery store, 1967, and the mentor he buried
02:23 No cell phone, no email, ever
03:35 A&P had 15,000 stores. Now it has none.
04:47 Why it is called AriZona
05:53 Know your cost, own everything, zero debt
07:51 Snapple, and the drive home that killed plan A
10:14 The Gatorade can that became the tall boy
11:26 Why the bank told him to stick to alcohol
12:29 May 5, 1992. Nine of ten stores sold out.
13:03 Why 99 cents got printed on the can
13:47 A supplier, a brewer, and a brand called Chaos
14:56 “That’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard”
15:33 Can the price hold?
16:51 What inflation and tariffs are actually doing to it
17:48 The same playbook, now in hard liquor
18:12 Why he bought his partner out instead of selling
19:46 The board is him and his sons
20:17 The plant private equity shut down
22:01 What standing on principle has cost him
23:53 The card
#AriZonaIcedTea #DonVultaggio #Entrepreneurship #FamilyBusiness #ConsumerGoods #Pricing #BuiltDifferent #IanSchwartzman #YahooFinance
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