Now in complete control of the business, he's moving Arizona into new teas, food products and international markets, with his sights set on doubling the size of the company in five years.
"We're back to our fighting weight," Vultaggio says with a thick Brooklyn accent. Meanwhile, competitors like Gold Peak and Pure Leaf have elbowed their way in, grabbing market share while Arizona tried to get its house in order. A case study in how infighting can strangle even a market leader, the battle took years to straighten out, resulting in one of the biggest corporate dissolutions in New York history and, in 2015, a confidential settlement. Other than its colorful cans, the company might be best known for the nearly decade-long bare-knuckle legal brawl between Vultaggio and John Ferolito, his friend and 50% partner for 40 years. "It's one of the great success stories."Īt least when everyone gets along. "They're one of the few beverage companies that started from scratch and became a billion-dollar company in the last 20 years," says Michael Bellas, chairman of Manhattan-based Beverage Marketing Corp., a consulting and research firm. Then he jumped into the ready-to-drink tea industry in the early 1990s. When he started brewing beer in the 1980s, he stirred up publicity with racy posters and a malt liquor named after the Sioux warrior Crazy Horse that ended up being banned by Congress following protests by Native American groups. Growing up in Brooklyn, he was always a head taller than his peers, a size-12 shoe by age 12. "I said, '6-foot-8.'"įorget pricey television spots and expensive billboards -Don Vultaggio knows what it takes to stand out. "I had a guy come in here one day from a major company and ask, 'How big is your marketing department?,'" Vultaggio says with a smirk, diving into broccoli-and-cheddar soup while cracking open a can of Arizona's Arnold Palmer Zero. Every afternoon, the towering Vultaggio (he stands closer to seven feet than to six) turns the place into a five-star restaurant, taking business meetings over a multicourse, family-style power lunch prepared by his chef, Armando.
#Arizona drink plastic bottle full
Their destination: Vultaggio's office -Wonka's inner sanctum -with its palatial living room, oversize dining tables and full kitchen.
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