I’ve been a part of hundreds of new product development and innovation sprints throughout my career. Whenever any CPG industry colleagues ask me about my personal flavor preference…I always say citrus. And that makes A LOT of sense when you realize that my favorite childhood pop growing up was Squirt or Sprite…and that I probably ate my weight in orange and lemon Starburst. Even as an adult kid…my go-to powdered supplements, hydration beverages, or energy drinks usually center around citrus flavors. I’m mentioning all this because you’d think, a citrus lover like me, I would be acutely aware of Matt McLean and his company Uncle Matt’s Organic (the largest organic orange juice company in the United States). But with the decadelong massive proliferation of products and brands across the different functional CPG categories that I deeply analyze…it unfortunately creates blind spots (or the inability to dig deeper across the entire CPG business landscape). Though that’s the great thing about these conversational content pieces…because I get to find those fascinating individuals that are indirectly related (but pivotal) to my core functional CPG categories. And I think you’re going to love hearing Matt’s story that spans a quarter-century…from a family farm side hustle to national CPG brand that exits to Dean Foods in 2017 until he buys Uncle Matt’s Organic back several years later during the Dean Foods bankruptcy. There are lots of great/bad/ugly moments from the Uncle Matt’s Organic journey, but we talk through how everything made the company’s strategic approach, mission, and vision stronger…including his passionate commitment to lead from the front and push the citrus industry forward. Whether that’s involved with overcoming the extremely impactful citrus greening disease, regenerative and organic farming practices, and philanthropy. We end the conversation with another area that Matt likes to lead from the front…and that’s product innovation (even creating performance nutrition products with orange juice as the vessel). But these are just some of the interesting topics we chatted about in this episode...

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