AboutEric Hofer Expertise Over 27 years experience, with 17 in international FMCG in back office operations and in field sales and data collection, including design, development and deployment of Handhelds, Marketing Equipment (Service, Tracking and Return on Investment), reporting and Vending management. Have participated on the launch of operations in new markets, and re-engineered the back office in several countries.
Experience Designed and led the development and deployment internal ERP system for Pepsi used in On-Premise/Vending in 13 markets.
Designed 2 handheld systems, the latest is now deployed in 4 markets internationally.
Re-engineered the back office functions (settlements, despatch, invoicing, credit control, etc) for over 20 snack, confectionary and beverage operators.
Developing software: Progress, VB, Access, C, Sybase, SA
Organizations Innovative-Selling Solutions
Publications BudapestSun
Education/Credentials State University of New York - BA Economics
NYU - Courant - Graduate work - Computing
Past/Present clients PepsiAmericas
PepsiCola International
PepsiCola Company
British Steel
British Telecom
Britvic (Pepsi's bottler in the UK)
AT&T
BellSouth
Mars Overseas Bottling
Pepsi France
Matutano (Frito-Lay Spain)
Frito-Lay
Pepsi Foods International
Chase Manhattan Bank
Kidder Peabody
National Power
SmithKline Beecham
Mars Overseas Bottling (Pepsi Azerbaijan)
A&P Bottling (Pepsi Serbia & Montenegro)
Iberia Bottlers (Pepsi Georgia)
I have written you in the past and have just a couple of questions to finalize my testing. I creating a juice that I plan on selling - although as of now I am looking to do a small test run so it is being created in my kitchen. Using concentrates, a juicer, pasteurizing on my stove, and hot filling glass bottles.
My obstacles at this point are:
1) the color changes from a nice clean green color to an unappealing olive green. (I asked you this already and you mentioned ascorbic acid. I am only mentioning it again to give a full picture of where I stand.)
2) The juices separate like oil and water. Maybe it is just a lot of sediment. The fruits tend to be lighter and on top. The vegetables tend to be heavier and sink. I need to have the juice more homogenous. I never see juices in store shelves separate like this so there must be a way to keep the mixture more consistent. Im hoping it something I can do at home as well.
The color change I can live with if I must. Ill simply use full sized labels on the bottles. I didnt want to - I planned to use a clear bottle where the juice can be seen. Especially since a full sized label may not be possible without special machines that I wont have accss to.
But the seperation is a deal breaker for me. Is there anyway I can overcome this.
Answer Rich,
These are questions outside my area of expertise (I'm more in Logistics, Back Office Systems etc.) ... I'll give you my thoughts - but please check with others...
- Colouring ... can be a very big issue - especially if people are repulsed by "olive". Consider rather than hiding the colour, colouring the bottles - eg. a light yellow. Anyway, it's "healthy and tastey" - keep in mind, people drink Mountain Dew and Campari - both of which look like they came out of a phosphor lab.
- Separation ... I'm not surprised; you might be able to leverage this point though. Something that communicates that separation is natural as this is a healthy product, no additives used etc. and "Shake Well before Serving." As to how one prevents it, I think this goes back to the differences between a "Suspension" and a "Colloid" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspension_(chemistry)) - there are ways to reduce the risk of separation - (e.g. slow it down) but settlement is still likely (perhaps passed the shelf sell-by-date). You'll have to review such with a chemist.
- Full Sized Labels - I think this isn't a good idea; the process is more expensive requiring shrink wrapping - go for the simpler coloured bottle and marketing...
