Arizona Beverage Company co-founder Don Vultaggio vowed to keep the brand’s iconic 99-cent cans, but to keep his promise amidst rampant inflation, he would give something else. I needed it.
Earlier this year, the New York-based company (no, not Arizona) increased the price of its 20-ounce bottles. “Tall Boys” It rose 25% from $1.00 to $1.25 in the Northeast, the largest market.
“We changed prices in certain markets earlier this year,” he told Yahoo Finance in a telephone interview. ” he said.
The decades-old promise of 99-cent cans was part of the decision to raise their prices, he said.
“We have this unique 99-cent can, and our goal is to keep that price. Sometimes we have to offset that with other things we do within our product portfolio,” Vultaggio said. says.
Rising cost of plastic was another reason behind the increase. “We squeezed out all the opportunities by speeding up the line and changing bottles and doing what we could behind the scenes so we didn’t have to affect the price, but we ran out of options, so we moved there. I was forced to,” Vultaggio said.
Other rising costs also hit the family-owned company. “Freight, sugar, energy, electricity, gas, labor costs, etc. are out of our control.”
“We will hold that price until something dramatic happens.”
The price of the 99-cent can remains the same, but the can itself has recently dropped an ounce.
“The 23 oz can became 22 oz because we went to the end of the 206. [the size of the can lid]We changed the can lid to save aluminum,” Vultaggio said.
Can 99 Cent stay here forever? Vultaggio said they are trying.
“We don’t know what the future holds. We will do everything we can and continue to do our best to maintain the most aggressive pricing on all our packages,” he said. It’s not an option because we don’t want to compromise on the quality of our drinks, so we’re forced to deal with some things we can’t control, but can, we’re committed and we’re going to do something We will hold that price until something serious happens.”
But Arizona remains competitive when compared to big conglomerate beverage companies, he said.
“We are dramatically cheaper than many of our competitors…for example, Coca-Cola’s 20 oz. [is] Probably north of $2.50… [Ours is] tremendous value [at $1.25].
He added that raising the bottle price was not an easy decision for a 30-year-old business and he hopes to keep customers loyal.
“I hate price increases. said. “But on the other hand, we did everything we could to hold [the] price. “
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Brooke DiPalma is a reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her @@ on Twitter.brooke di palma Or send an email to bdipalma@yahoofinance.com.
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