Beverage World - May 2008 - (Page 48) [UPCLOSE] I graduated from high school, I needed to go to college. I was able to come to work here with the Jessup family and go to school at the same time.” The current plant manager, Wayne Davis, has been with the company for 44 years. Jay believes that his company rests on two pillars: the customers and the people who serve them. “That’s kind of basic sounding, boilerplate stuff,” he acknowledges, “but BUILT IN 1983, the company’s Charlottesville, Va., USA production facility that’s really how it goes. is one of four soda and water bottling plants that it operates throughout Virginia. An Extended Family You’ve got to try and treat What stands out about the business is the way the Jessups your employees such that their main focus is trying to serve the customers the best way they can. And then if the have fostered a family atmosphere that extends beyond market dynamics and the business environment changes, blood relatives. For example, Frances Burns has served in the you’ve got to figure out what that means.” capacity of operations vice president for eight years. Prior to Meanwhile, Burns believes the biggest challenge today is that, he was a plant manager for 27 years. the proliferation of products. “I can go back with the company 40 years,” he says. “When “Nowadays, there are a lot of SKUs,” concurs Jay. “But our sales team is pretty good about getting new products out there and giving them a shot. Give us the product and we’re good to go. We can get it out there and get it in front of people and then let them do their best if we get support from the franchise companies.” One of the best things about today’s market is the many retail formats that offer the bottler’s products, with none really controlling overall volume, Jay asserts. “We have a good variety of customer types along with a vast assortment of package types to meet their needs,” he says. “I think that one of the neatest things about the market that we’re in is that we’ve got a taste of everything. I don’t think any of them these days dominate particularly as far as overall volume.” » knew, from his youth. In his formative years, Jay was involved in all facets of the business, from loading trucks at night to running routes during summer vacations. “I knew and trusted these folks well enough to kind of keep my mouth shut, keep my ears and eyes open, and ask lots of questions,” Jay explains. “That gave me time to learn the way we went about our business in the environment of the mid-’80s.” Distribution 2.0 Currently, the company is concentrating more on logistics and warehouse automation with an eye on the future. This focus started four years ago with a meeting with Darvey Automation. Charles Darvey, a longtime veteran of the beverage business, approached the Jessups with a way to streamline their operations through automated case picking. If all goes according to plan, the process should be up and running by summer. “Years ago, there wasn’t any problem finding labor to load trucks,” Burns says. “Today it’s extremely difficult. This machine will actually take a sales order and build that order to specification, perfectly identifying everything that’s on a pallet.” 48_BEVERAGE WORLD_MAY 2008 BEVERAGEWORLD.COM http://www.juicetyme.com http://www.juicetyme.com http://BEVERAGEWORLD.COM
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