are going to come in and give you a ridiculously stupid number. But my conversation is that on your way out, you pay me my fair value for what I did for your brand that got you to the point where now you are going to get paid all this money. I think it’s important that suppliers come around to realize that. TL: Like vitaminwater -- we grew it for
seven or eight years and, right at its peak, when it’s starting to grow, you lose it to one of the big guys. It’s hard to take that when you’ve worked with them for so many years. You have to adjust your plan because if you loss 50,000 cases a month, you have to restructure. Sure, there’s a payout, but then you have to put that back into your company and into your people to keep your company alive.
TL: I feel some of the companies were, yes.
And it does help you for a time period. We depend on new brands, new innovations. We depend on people like you guys who are creating new brands to come to us with new brands so that we can grow and replace the vitaminwaters and Monsters. Without companies like you guys we wouldn’t be in business. So the distributors depend on new brands. I try to never turn down looking at a brand. GM: I agree. We’ve lived through a vary-
ing degree of buyouts from SoBe and Izze and Rock Star and Monster and vitaminwater and Fuze and probably eight to ten
contracts these days. I think a lot of it has to do with when you sit down. If you’re up front and honest that you know that in most instances the endgame is for that brand to sell. That’s just what it is. We try so that on the front end we are doing our part and that we are protected on the back end. And if we are doing our part the brand owner is usually more than happy on the back end. GB: I think that there are more distribution companies that, like Polar and New Age and us, who are coming out with our own products to keep our distributors alive because we can’t depend on other products
“We try not to embarass ourselves by just taking your money and not doing the right things.” –Guy Battaglia
BN: Does the payout give you enough time
to recover from it? Obviously, it’s a sensitive subject. You can never compensate for losing a 50,000-case a month brand. But were they fair with you?
different ones where we feel we have done a nice job of being a part of the success, the regional success and a bigger piece. So obviously it has changed the way we look at
C on c
staying around with us. But I think one of the things that suppliers need to understand is that there is a lot of money involved in supporting this stuff. You have to think
eptualization to Realization
SF
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