Business 350

Odwalla Vs. E. Coli

BA 350

04 April 2010

Odwalla, a mythical leader who guides the "people of the sun" out of the "gray haze."

Odwalla was founded in 1980 by Steltenpohl Bassett Harvard graduate and his wife Bonnie. Steltenpohl started Odwalla juice company as a side project to fund his pursuit of a musical career in Jazz. Steltenpohl and his wife used only their $200 juicer and all natural fruits when they first started their company. They used to deliver their Odwalla juices to local merchants in their Volkswagen Bus. Steltenpohl got the idea of selling fruit juice from a book , 100 Businesses You Can Start for Under $100.

Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s Odwalla gradually expanded and began acquiring other smaller businesses. With each business that Odwalla had acquired they expanded their borders and sometimes acquired a new flavor or recipe. A couple of examples of this growth would be in 1985 when Odwalla bought out Live Juice and added apple juice to their lineup, or when they acquired Dharma Juices and expanded their borders to the Pacific Northwest.

Odwalla’s Initial Public Offering in December of 1993, was for 1 million shares for the price of $6.375 per share. Before the Initial Public Offering, Odwalla used private bank loans and private stock offerings to finance their operations. The revenue gained from the Initial Public Offering was used to finance a 65,000 square foot state-of-the-art production facility in Dinuba, California.

Odwalla primarily markets their juices through supermarkets, warehouse outlets, natural food markets and specialty stores. The majority of Odwalla’s revenue comes directly from Safeway and Costco Wholesale. Stores like Trader Joes also had a high impact on Odwalla’s revenue. Odwalla had primarily targeted people who lived a healthy lifestyle and believed in whole foods that were not processed in mass and treated with chemicals or other unnatural treatments....