Editor's Background Note: Tropicana is the world's only global juice business. Founded over 50 years ago, the company has eight internal manufacturing locations, over 190,000 outlets, produces 144 million cases a year of juice, has 5,200 employees and operates in multiple countries throughout Europe, Asia and North and South America. All of this is strategically guided from the headquarters in Florida, and over the past half-decade has seen a transformation of how it does business in terms of packaging and packaging graphics. Dan Davidson is the senior manager of the department that is responsible for packaging graphics, and his vision and goal has been to create a department that can design and coordinate graphics for a global enterprise using digital technology currently available. For more on Tropicana, see the side bar on page 27 or go to the Tropicana website at
www.tropicana.com.
Interview with Dan Davidson, senior manager, creative services and design, Tropicana.
BCI: Dan, I know that you are one of the leaders in converting the packaging graphics process to digital workflow, but could you tell us your key strategy for converting your company?
Dan Davidson: It is not all that complex. I see it as taking conventional packaging graphics methodology and converting it to digital technology, using standard workflow and adding digital technology to it. At Tropicana, we started with our existing internal workflow for package graphics and looked at how we could add digital technology to it. The internal communication processes were all being done on computers anyway, so adding digital technology was more a matter of adding capacity and training people than making some major process change.
BCI: That sounds simple enough, but did you have a long-term goal too?
DD: I think the best way to put it is to say that the big picture was that we wanted to move to a global workflow. Tropicana was already working globally in terms of sales and manufacturing, but our workflow for graphics was not as global as our company. We had to start somewhere, so we started with our Bradenton [FL] office and went from there. As a company, we were aligned by brand and by product line so we set out to change them one at time to build experience and a methodology. During this time we needed to work with our converters to make sure that they were ready for the next conversion step when we were ready.
The results were amazing, even from my perspective, and I was the one who had the dream for this. In 36 months, we went from looking for transparencies in a box to having a fully integrated digital system that could send and receive packaging graphics from anywhere in the world.
We went from conventional film cameras — with all the time and problems that go with that — to a fully digital camera system working in house. We eliminated the outside photographer and did everything digitally on the spot. The savings were incredible. We saved US$1.8 million the last year, and we cut 22 days out of the concept to mockup portion of the design. This means that we can get a product on the shelf 22 days sooner than we could before. That is 22 days of extra sales. It makes us more competitive, and it gives us 22 days to be working on something else.
BCI: Twenty-two days out of a product design cycle is almost unheard of. What did you do to accomplish that?
DD: There were a lot of little things that helped, but the breakthrough technology was the digital camera. Until we realized the capabilities of our digital camera, we didn't really understand the potential savings. We used to accept the timeline for a conventional outside photographer who would come in, do a shoot, develop the film and send us proofs or transparencies. The whole process could take a week to ten days. Then, if we needed a re-shoot, we added another week. Then we had to have the film converted to a print, the artist had to work on it, and on and on and on. With the digital camera, we can shoot in the morning and by noon have a full mockup of the package on the computer. By that same afternoon, we will have a mockup made and shrink wrapped and ready for a final product photograph that can be sent to the business unit for comments, all on the same day.
BCI: What were some of the other changes to the system that you made to improve the workflow?
DD: As I mentioned at the beginning, the work order system was critical to project management and working with vendors. We wanted a graphic work order system that would work with digital image workflow. The department, when I started, was a work order based department, so we updated the computers, added enough capacity to handle digital images and provided training for the employees but kept the same basic system. The big step from my perspective was that we were able to provide training to our artist and move him up to become a digital artist. That gave us a new level of internal capabilities that we didn't have before.
Our converter was also kept in the loop about our changes. We gave him our timetable for change and worked with him every step of the way. Being able to explain why we were making the change to digital helped him understand some of the requests we were making. I liken it to taking “Print 101”, but in digital format for all of us. We all had to learn the capabilities of the equipment and the technology. And we are still learning.
From my perspective, it is the dream of everyone who does packaging graphics to set up the perfect digital workflow for their operation. But as we found out, you have to bring everyone you work with along with you. This includes vendors and the other locations and departments you work with in your own organization. One unexpected side benefit was that it improved our communication globally. People we used to only talk to every few months were talking with us every day. It improved us globally, but we started locally. We didn't have a master plan, but we did have a goal — to make everything flow digitally with as much “smoothness” as possible with the technology we had.
For example, we did a redesign of our Pure Premium line in Europe, Asia and South America. To do that we worked with people in multiple countries, with multiple languages. And on my staff, we only have people who speak English, and American English at that. And all this was done in less than 6 months. That would have been impossible under the old system. It would have ground to a halt or become fragmented. As it was, it was a unified project with a common theme and common graphics.
BCI: What do you consider to be the necessary capabilities for your kind of operation?
DD: We have in-house capabilities for almost every aspect of graphics creation for packaging. To start with, we made sure that our computer system had the capacity to handle the kinds and sizes of files we needed to work with. And we wanted a system that our vendors and other offices could buy into and link to without problems. Next, we made sure that our people were trained to do what needed to be done. I mentioned before that we took our staff artist, and with training and experience, made him into one of the best digital artists in the world, in my opinion.
We bought the best digital camera system we could, but to be honest, we only realized its full capabilities about two years ago as we were in the process of changing over from film to digital. This camera produced images that were as good or better than the very best that could be done with a conventional film studio camera. And the files were ready to use as soon as the picture was taken. It was one of the key pieces of technology when I look back on it.
We used to go outside for color separations, photography and a number of other services, but with digital workflow that isn't necessary. We have the ability to make samples of labels, packaging and boxes right here in the office. And we are linked to every other office and manufacturing facility so that we can send them photos and graphics instantly.
In this same 36-month period, we have gone from having no capabilities to having full shrink-wrap mockup. Now, we can do our mockup in 24 hours. We can do some jobs, like put labels on a bottle for graphics review, in almost no time.
And last, we had to make the decision to only work with suppliers who were digital. That meant that some of our converters had to move to computer-to-plate technology. And, you know, it made us both better to do this.
BCI: What are the benefits of this transformation?
DD: The company might say that the benefits are twofold — time and money. We do things faster and for less cost to the company. But I also see the hidden benefits of going to a fully integrated digital design flow for graphics. These benefits are:
quality (consistent quality) of the products on the shelf
reduced time to market
cost savings
improved communication with all the segments of the company.
And these benefits incorporate more than savings because some are truly revenue builders. Being faster to market is always a good thing in the food business. Improved communication means that new ideas come to market faster. And quality — especially quality graphics — sells.
BCI: You are clearly excited by what you have done here, but what is the best part about this transformation?
DD: This is an exciting place to work because by going digital we took the work — I should say the drudgery — out of designing great packaging. We are freer to be truly creative and innovative. We can try a lot of ideas without being as afraid of mistakes, and mistakes are not nearly as costly as they used to be.
The people I work with are really great and our success has been due to the people and their willingness to make this change as much as anything else.
About Tropicana
Tropicana started more than 50 years ago with the aspirations of a restless Italian immigrant named Anthony Rossi. Then, as now, Tropicana's product focus is on natural products. Today, Tropicana is the world leader in healthy citrus and other juice products and is the world's only global citrus business.
After decades of growth as an independent company, the Seagram Company Ltd. acquired Tropicana in 1988. During the ensuing decade, Tropicana expanded from its Eastern U.S. stronghold all across North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America.
Tropicana launched dozens of successful new juice and juice beverage creations. To meet the production and distribution challenges, Tropicana expanded its facilities rapidly in the 1990s. The company built a co-generation plant in Bradenton, FL to produce its own electricity and steam, constructed new distribution centers in Jersey City, NJ, and Cincinnati, OH, purchased a processing plant in City of Industry, CA, and developed the citrus industry's first anaerobic water treatment system.
On August 25th, 1998, PepsiCo, Inc. completed a US$3.3 billion acquisition of Tropicana Products, Inc. from The Seagram Company Ltd. and named Gary M. Rodkin president and chief executive officer of the juice company. Today, Tropicana Juices are enjoyed almost everywhere — North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia. As the only truly global juice business, the company has captured almost 6% of the world juice and juice beverage market.
Half a century after Rossi began to change the way Americans enjoy fruit products, Tropicana is changing the shape of global refreshment.
For more information on Tropicana, visit their website at www.tropicana.com.
