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Sunday, December 12, 2010 (SF Chronicle)
James White, CEO of Jamba Juice Co.
<a class="email fn" href="mailto:sherel@sfchronicle.com">Suzanne Herel</a>
James White makes people smile.
"When I say I'm the CEO of Jamba, their faces light up. It doesn't matter
who it is - I've never had any other reaction," he said last week in an
interview in the Carrot Room at the company's Emeryville headquarters.
Recalling a recent awards ceremony, he said, "There was a woman who wanted
to take a picture with me so she could show it to her kids. It's just
amazing."
Then there's the product placement, which most companies pay for. Jamba
Juice gets it for free - like it or not.
Whether it's portrayed as the "corporate juice pimps" who bedevil juice
bar owner Greg Kinnear in the movie "Baby Mama," or the corporate sponsor
of Jane Krakowski's romance with James Franco in a "30 Rock" episode,
viewers never know where Jamba Juice is going to pop up next.
The company that started as a single Juice Club in San Luis Obispo marked
its 20th anniversary in April.
"I think in many ways, Jamba was ahead of its time," White said. "If you
dial back the clock 20 years ago, Jamba was like astronaut food for
consumers. It really awakened a fun and interesting way for consumers to
think they were doing something good for themselves."
The company changed its name to Jamba Juice in 1995 and in 2006 merged
with Services Acquisition Corp. International, which changed its name to
Jamba Inc. and took the company public.
Unlike Jamba, White does not have California roots.
He grew up in St. Louis, son of a father who, at 78, still works as a
skycap at the St. Louis airport and a mother who is retired from a career
as a medical lab technician. He remains close with his parents and his
younger sister, an entrepreneur. Tough time to take over
It was his parents, White said, who instilled in him his work ethic and
his commitment to giving back to the community.
He attended public school, studied business and marketing at the
University of Missouri - where he met his future bride, a journalism major
- and earned an master of business administration from Fontbonne
University.
White started his career at Coca-Cola before moving to Ralston Purina,
where he spent 15 years in 13 different jobs before being recruited by
Gillette to help orchestrate that company's turnaround. Later, White was
recruited by Safeway, which put him in charge of creating that retailer's
signature brands. Two years ago, Jamba came knocking.
The flailing company was looking for someone who not only had turnaround
experience, but who could implement a growth strategy once the company was
back on track.
"We're in the late innings of the turnaround," White said. "We hope to
have the turnaround fully complete in the middle of next year."
White couldn't have picked a worse time to land the mission: It was the
first week of December 2008; Lehman Bros. had recently collapsed; GM, Ford
and Chrysler were motoring toward bankruptcy; and the National Bureau of
Economic Research had stated the obvious - the country was in a recession.
"It's been pretty tough sledding," White said, adding, "You learn a set of
lessons that I will never forget, no matter the state of the economy."
Among them was a new morning discipline that he'd never had to invoke at
his blue-chip employers.
"The first two things I do when I come in is, I look at the daily sales
from the day before, and I check the cash," he said. "I've never been in a
business where I needed to do that, but now I think that's just a good
management practice, whether you need to or not."
Instead of hunkering down, however, he projected a vision for the brand
and invested in product development.
"We made shorter-term investments and choices that didn't disadvantage the
long-term health of the brand," he said. "We want to be prepared when the
economy starts to turn." 'Recession is a reset'
When that will be is anyone's guess, but of one thing White feels sure: "I
believe that consumers are changed forevermore. ... Value is much more
important than it ever was. We have to find ways to surprise and delight
the consumer.
"This recession is a reset."
White engaged three significant shifts in strategy. He broadened the menu
to include items such as sandwich wraps, oatmeal and organic tea and
coffee. He set the company on the path toward having more franchises than
company-owned stores to drain risk from the business model. And he opened
up licensing opportunities for the Jamba brand, a move that is manifesting
itself in such products as make-your-own smoothie kits and a healthy
energy drink being developed in partnership with Nestle.
"We don't think there is any player that is as firmly entrenched from a
health and wellness perspective as Jamba." White said. "We get an instant
halo in the healthy space."
The company, which employs about 8,000 people across the United States, is
poised to expand into Canada and South Korea as well as universities,
airports, malls and schools. Making parents proud
The decisive hand White uses to steer the company mirrors the singularity
of purpose he applied to getting where he is today.
"I always thought I would work with a great consumer brand, and Jamba is
the most incredible brand - it has meaning and purpose and a soul. And
that I'd lead a great organization."
Perhaps more important, White said, "I wanted to always do work that would
make my parents proud." James White
Work: President and CEO, Jamba Juice Co. (JMBA; market cap $130 million)
Age: 50
Family: Wife, Lisa; daughters, Jasmine, 11, and Krista, 18
Residence: Pleasanton
Hobbies: Family time, listening to music, watching sports
Can't live without: Family, giving back to the community
Favorite smoothie: Aloha pineapple
Quote: "I believe that consumers are changed forevermore. We've retooled
our business model; we have no false assumptions that things are going to
return to the way they were three years ago. ... This recession is a
reset."
E-mail Suzanne Herel at sherel@sfchronicle.com. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2010 SF Chronicle
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