“Steve inspired him to assume exterior the field and look in the mean time as one of many alternatives for innovation and progressive considering and never as a defeat,” mentioned Eli Steltenpohl. “That actually gave my dad some fireplace essential to get by.”
Odwalla has by no means recovered in any respect With the corporate on the verge of chapter, its founders have been pressured to promote a controlling curiosity to personal fairness corporations.
The Coca-Cola Firm acquired Odwalla in 2001 for $ 181 million, then it closed final 12 months. In doing so, Coke cited a necessity for enterprise effectivity and a client choice for much less sugary drinks, although Mr. Steltenpohl informed The Occasions in 2016 that Coke had by no means maximized the model’s potential.
“This isn’t what my father meant for Odwalla,” his son mentioned. “However that made California’s success quite a bit sweeter.”
In 2010, Mr Steltenpohl was planning to begin one other firm, however modified gears when he noticed the subsequent wave of non-dairy milk alternate options made out of walnuts, coconut, oats and soybeans. Whereas recovering from his liver transplant surgical procedure, the hospital gave him a protein beer; He discovered it so annoying, he informed The Occasions, that he was impressed to do higher, and was fast to pour out premium almond milk, ready-to-drink coffees and barista cats.
He named the brand new society after Queen Califia, a personality from a Sixteenth-century Spanish novel who turned the spirit of colonial California. After studying exhausting classes from Odwalla, he insisted on strict high quality management, much less sugar and extra diet, and on sustaining an unbiased ethos. In 2017, California bottled espresso was No. 1 in the US.
Greg Andrew Steltenpohl was born on October 20, 1954, in Homestead, Florida. His mom, Benita (Desjardins) Steltenpohl, was a culinary entrepreneur and chef. His father, Jerome, was a civil engineer who moved the household within the Fifties to Southern California, the place he labored for protection contractors. Greg grew up within the St. Bernard space.
