By Brian Gaylord , 04/24/2006
San Francisco-based Sundia Corp. announced that Sunkist Growers Chief Executive Officer Jeff Gargiulo has joined the company as its chairman of the board of directors and advisors.
Brad Oberwager, CEO and founder of Sundia, told The Produce News that Mr. Gargiulo's role would be a "strategic" one. "Someone like Jeff doesn't have to put in 100 hours a week to have an impact," Mr. Oberwager said.
Mr. Gargiulo announced in January that he would not renew his contract with Sunkist and that he would leave the company in June after five years as president and chief executive officer.
Sundia Corp. - devoted to providing premium watermelon on a year-round basis -- launched in 2004 and is the first company to mass produce watermelon juice. The privately held company's products include watermelon juice, fresh watermelon and watermelon concentrate.
Mr. Gargiulo will team with Mr. Oberwager in an attempt to build a global produce brand. Mr. Gargiulo said in a statement that Sundia's revolutionary approach to building a produce brand and the company's strategy of developing value-added produce products -- such as the Sundia line of watermelon juices -- made it appealing to join the young company.
"Sundia has accomplished in less than a year what other produce brands have taken decades to do," Mr. Gargiulo said, citing the company's ability to distribute its Sundia watermelon juices and capture 33 percent of the country's watermelon supply with the "Sundia" brand through strategic partnerships with the country's leading growers and distributors.
Sundia has become a category brand leader overnight. The company is expanding the watermelon market with its line of 100 percent juices while giving growers marketing muscle and continued autonomy of their businesses.
"It's a revolutionary approach to brand building and aggregating buying power - exactly what's needed for growers to compete in a global marketplace," Mr. Gargiulo said.
Mr. Oberwager said that he had been wooing Mr. Gargiulo for months. "Jeff brings decades of produce smarts to Sundia," he said. "With Sundia being so young and agile, and thus without encumbrances, Jeff can more quickly apply his years of know-how towards building Sundia into a major global produce brand in record time."
Mr. Oberwager said that Sundia is heavy on branding but light on expenditure.
"We don't take possession of fruit," Mr. Oberwager said. "We work with partners. We're simply the label."
Sundia has 10 to 12 partnerships in place, including with major watermelon players such as Timco Distributors and Borders Melon Co. Sundia has a major promotion slated for this summer whereby Timco will put a "Sundia" label on its watermelons - as in "Sundia" watermelons, distributed by Timco - and the purchasing consumer gets a Sundia watermelon and a free watermelon drink.
Mr. Gargiulo began his produce career with the Naples Fruit & Vegetable Co. in Naples, FL. He later founded Gargiulo Inc., which quickly became a top market-share leader in fresh tomatoes and a market-share leader in strawberries and raspberries. In 1997, Gargiulo Inc. was acquired by Monsanto, and Mr. Gargiulo served as president of the produce business unit for two years. In 2001, he was appointed president and CEO of Sunkist Growers Inc.
During his tenure at Sunkist, Mr. Gargiulo spearhead the reorganization of several Sunkist divisions and introduced new products to leverage the "Sunkist" brand, expanding Sunkist's distribution into Wal-Mart and Costco. He helped develop strategies for global sourcing and diversified products, including the introduction of Sunkist's pre-cut fruit program and its berry marketing program.
Mr. Gargiulo also has served as chairman of the Produce Marketing Association, during which he participated in the GATT and NAFTA trade negotiations. He is owner of Gargiulo Vineyards in Napa Valley, CA. |
