NORTH PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Bravo! Foods International Corp. has selected Stan Harris as its first Chief Marketing Officer. The appointment was effective January 1.
Harris' firm, Harris Ideas, has served as the agency of record for Bravo! since November 2003, helping to launch many of the company's Slammers lines of single-serve, vitamin-fortified, flavored milks and other proprietary products.
Harris' career spans 35 years in advertising and marketing. He first worked for J.C. Penney in retail advertising where he received The [image-nocss] Retail Marketing Association's award for creative excellence and was the youngest creative supervisor in company history. He also worked at what is now Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide on global brands such as General Mills and Proctor & Gamble, receiving an Advertising Age "Advertising in Television" award. He then launched his own agency, growing it from a two-person shop to one of the largest independent ad firms in the Southeast, with billings in excess of $100 million. The agency, Harris Drury Cohen, earned a national reputation for building brands.
Harris sold his agency and founded Harris Ideas. The new venture's mission was to be an "ideas-based marketing firm."
Bravo!, CEO Roy Warren said, "We are truly fortunate to have had Stan working with us on the development and launch of many of our products and our success to date is in part due to his creative approach to reaching our core consumers. We'll need Stan's continued contributions as we develop new products, and to capitalize on our Master Distribution Agreement with Coca Cola Enterprises."
Other awards include Clio Awards; American Marketing Association Effie Awards; New York Advertising Festival Awards; and Local, Regional, National and Best of Show ADDY Awards.
Meanwhile, Bravo! Also announced the appointment of seven sales professionals to newly created regional manager positions, as well as a new director of sales for vending and schools.
Michael Edwards, Bravo!'s Chief Revenue Officer, said, "These new hires significantly bolster Bravo!'s sales capabilities, and will be instrumental in expanding the domestic penetration of our products and in supporting Coca-Cola Enterprises' sizable distribution system."
Philip Huber was appointed Bravo!'s new director of sales for vending and schools. Geoffrey Sidlow is the new director of sales responsible for the Great Lakes region. He was most recently the director of Ohio for Crossmark in Cincinnati, where he managed key accounts and client relationships within the grocery/confection segment. James Grieger will oversee the West-Northwest Quadrant for Bravo!. He spent more than 30 years with the Coca-Cola Bottling Co, of Washington, most recently as the education/amusement recreation channel manager. Derek Graf is Bravo!'s new director of sales covering the Midwest. He was previously a district sales manager of cold drinks with Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. (CCE). The Southwest will be managed by Keith Pedelscleaux, a sales professional with 20 years' experience who also joins Bravo! from Coca-Cola Enterprises. He was most recently the ConocoPhillips national account executive, and prior to that he was the Chevron national account executive. Margaret Sibilia will be responsible for the West-Southern Quadrant. She was previously the district sales manager for Coca-Cola Enterprises in San Leandro, Calif. Peter Benario will be Bravo!'s director of sales for the Northeast. He joins Bravo from H.P. Hood LLC in Boston, where he was the regional sales manager of foodservice products. Nancy Williams will join Bravo!'s current Southeast Regional Manager, Bryce Boynton, in overseeing this region. Williams was formerly a sales representative for the Southeast Atlantic Beverage Co., and has held various positions with The Coca-Cola Co. and Coca-Cola Enterprises.Finally, Bravo! has signed a multi-year distribution agreement with Jasper Products LLC, Joplin, Mo., one of only three U.S. dairy processors approved by the Food & Drug Administration to produce aseptic shelf-stable milk in bottles. Bravo! has contracted with Jasper, which has produced its flavored milks, including Slammers, since 2001, for the continued production of Bravo!'s products through September 2010.
The parties have agreed to annual volume commitments for the ordering and production of Bravo!'s lines of milk beverages. The scheduled production commitments with Jasper will be realized on a ramp-up basis, starting in April 2006, with the installation of additional processing equipment at Jasper's plant. These production commitments will satisfy the agreed upon supply obligation of Bravo! to CCE, under Bravo!'s Master Distribution Agreement with CCE by the summer of 2006.
To secure the production commitments, as well as the right of first refusal for Jasper's additional production capacity going forward, Bravo! has paid a one-time equipment mobilization payment of $2.7 million to Jasper. The agreement incorporates per-unit monetary penalties for both unused capacity by Bravo! and any production shortfall by Jasper.
Bravo! develops, brands, markets, distributes and sells flavored milk products, available through production agreements with regional aseptic milk processors and currently sold under the Slammers brand name. Many of Bravo! Foods' Slammers lines are cobranded through exclusive partnerships with Masterfoods, a division of Mars Inc., Marvel Entertainment and MD Enterprises (Moon Pie). Slammers are now available at more than 30,000 stores nationwide, including such chains as 7-Eleven, A&P, Associated Grocers, Bi-Lo, Bruno's, C/S Metro, Dutch Farms, Giant Food Stores, Jewel, Mars, Pathmark, Piggly Wiggly, Ralph's, Safeway, Sam's Club, Shaw's, ShopRite, Speedway, SuperTarget, Unified, Waldbaums, Walgreens and White Rose.
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