We are pinching ourselves that the former Senior VP of Sales of FIJI Water, Mr. James Harris has joined our team as Vice President of Business Development & Operations.

James is an accomplished expert in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry. During his 10-year tenure of progressive leadership roles at FIJI Water, he secured over 50 distributors and oversaw a network that included Dr. Pepper/7UP Bottling Group, Admiral Beverage, Young's Market and many others. 

James has successfully launched a number of high-profile brands in the food and beverage space including leading distribution and sales for Monster Energy Drink, TCHO Chocolate, Rumble Supershake, Dave's Gourmet, Groundwork Coffee and Diedrich Coffee.

At TCHO Chocolate, James helped build national distribution while significantly improving margin and profit. He spearheaded the launch of Rumble Supershake in the US, and quickly established distribution in retail grocery channels. While at Dave's Gourmet, James not only developed the Sam's Club program that increased sales by 50%, but also implemented a SKU guideline that secured new authorization in 250 Kroger stores.

With his oversight at Groundwork Coffee, grocery sales in Los Angeles doubled while sales in the Pacific Northwest increased by 500%. James restructured and revived Diedrich Coffee by implementing SKU rationalization, price increases and dissolving the unprofitable Food Service division. He also doubled the sales team to lead Diedrich Coffee's introduction in Grocery and Club. Diedrich became profitable within two years and was sold for US$290 million.

Mr. Harris has managed sales, marketing, pricing and promotional strategy for multi-million-dollar companies. He has trained and headed high-performance sales teams to introduce new products and has worked with all channels of trade from Grocery, Mass, Club, Drug, C-store, Specialty and Food Service on a local, regional, national and International level. He is an expert in developing and managing all models of distribution from DSD to broadline and DTA.

We can't wait to see what he will do at Planet Based Foods!