01:06 Hey, welcome back to the show. And I am so excited to have with us the chief uncle of Uncle Matt's juices. Hey Matt, would you tell us who you are and what you do? 

01:17 Yeah, uh, first off. Thanks for having me on today, Todd. I appreciate the opportunity to tell my story. So I am Matt Mclean, founder and chief uncle of Uncle Matt's Organic. We are America's number one selling organic orange juice brand. We're sold nationwide, from Alaska to Hawaii to Maine to even Puerto Rico. You can find us in over 15,000 stores, Yep. We were founded in June of 1999. So we're celebrating 25 years in business this year. 

01:46 Fantastic. Congratulations! 

01:47 Thank you. 

01:50 And what type of juices are you juicing? Like, what's going on in the business? 

01:54 Yeah, so our number one seller, um, our flagship item is just pulp-free organic orange juice. So liquid gold.

02:02 Is that right? 

02:03 Yeah, that's it. Pretty simple, but we've, uh, since expanded a lot from there, we do, you know, uh, lemonades; we do punches; we even do tea now as well. Um, so yeah, we do quite a lot of different items, but, uh, we're still primarily known for our organic, uh, delicious-tasting orange juice.  

02:26 Awesome. And so what, what inspired you in 1999? Everyone else was thinking. com tech booming, uh, industry, and you decided to go to juice. So we'll talk to it, walk us through that. 

02:36 Well, so it's a little bit in my blood. I'm a fourth generation Florida citrus grower. I grew up in Florida. Uh, we're here in central Florida, just west of Orlando. I'm about 20 minutes from Disney world. We used to be surrounded by citrus groves everywhere, but now we're surrounded by homes. Uh, the agriculture has changed. The environment's changed quite a lot. We had freezes, devastating freezes in the eighties that wiped out a lot of the citrus. And since then, um, they've replaced it with a lot of homes, but so it was in my blood to, to be in the citrus industry. And, um, I wound up pretty easy going into the juice business as a natural farmer from that upbringing.   

03:16 I mean, that makes sense. When, when grandpa and his dad all were juicers, it kind of makes sense.  

03:21 Right. It, so they grew up growing, uh, growing oranges. I, I loved, uh, as a kid, I worked in the groves a lot and, you know, I would sit there with my dad, he would grab a fresh orange right off the tree and he's got this perfect way with his knife that he can just cut it ever so correctly.  And then he cores out the top and you sit there, squeeze it and drink it. Uh, right from the orange in the grove. So I was hooked as a kid. 

03:47 Sounds awesome. 

03:48 Yeah, it's pretty neat. He takes a lot of pride in being able to take his really sharp grove knife and peel almost all of the peel off of the orange in one string without a break. 

03:58 Well, there you go. Okay. So it kind of is definitely something in your blood. You've been born and raised on juicing. I do think it's funny, the timing. Cause I remember 1999, 1999 very well in, uh, in trying to build a startup myself at the time, trying to hit the. com boom and, and here I've had, you know, 20 businesses since then and you're still plugging away, doing the family biz. I think it's awesome. 

04:23 Yeah, it, uh,  we have gone up, down and around, um, you know, in any business to be survived for 25 years. Yeah. There's been a lot of good days and bad days, but overall we, we averaged out above, uh, which is great.  

04:38 Fantastic. I love it. So, so walk us through the business side of this, because I think a lot of people think of, of anything agriculture related as being very, um, non technical, very kind of boring, um, they sell to maybe a couple of their supplier for maybe a couple of different buyers. But you've got this amazing online presence and I love like you're using puns. You're using great marketing You've got some really cool stuff going on. How did you grow and Acclimate to the tech side of ag 

05:27 So I was really fortunate early on  I'm married my creative designer wife  And so that, that is the brilliance behind Uncle Matt. She still runs our marketing today and, and does all of our creative design work. So it literally, if you see graphics on her label, uh, it came out of her, her, our logo design, it came from her. So I was, I was blessed early on to have that dynamic, uh, duo within Uncle Matt's. And so we've continued to lean on her. And as the company's grown, she's got a lot more talent on her team. Uh, but it's fun. We, we have. We like to have fun. I'm, I love to laugh. Uh, I don't take myself too serious. We love the product that we make. We have a wonderful vision of where we want to go with Uncle Matt's and every day we wake up We go against Tropicana and simply two large brands kind of Coke and Pepsi Uh, so you're just this little challenger and the rocky music is always playing in the background Um, so who doesn't who doesn't want to be part of that, right? 

06:16 I love it. I love it No, it's fantastic. And and I I take it that the growth Is as organic as your business, right?  

06:26 Correct. Correct. I mean, we have a very small marketing budget. My, if my wife was here, she would be like, yeah You can't believe how much we do with so little money  So it is a lot of it's a lot of word of mouth Um, and we're pretty scrappy on social media where you don't have to spend as much money and we we do a lot on pack Uh, so we're at real estate is is fairly inexpensive and free You Uh, but yeah, that's a lot of guerrilla marketing with not a lot of dollars. But one thing that gets this great word of mouth is you have to have a product that is consistently great. And so that's what we really focus on is. So when you open that bottle of juice, you go, wow, this is fantastic tasting. Well, you'll buy again and then. Uh, referred to a friend. And so that's really, we, we focus the most time, energy and effort and being consistently great with every juice bottle that we put out there. 

07:19 I love it. I think it is refreshing to hear a business like yours that has. Taking such an organic approach to growth and, and what a blessing it is to have married a wife that, that is the creative director and just loves to get into that because she's done a, she's done an amazing job. As I did some backstory research on your brand, I thought, wow, he's, he must have a really awesome marketing department. And it sounds like, you know, when you're, you know, when you know the creative director that well, it kind of works out pretty good. I'm, I'm guessing.  

07:49 It does great as long as I stay out of it. I love, I love, I love to get in there and like, hey, let's, let's talk about the, this ad or let's talk about the, you know, this design and shit. We need the tension. He's also like, there's  tension in the room.  She just kind of goes like, Oh, here we go. You're going to come in and try and drive the bus, stay in your lane, buddy. Uh, and so I just kind of chuckle and take a couple of steps back and let her do her thing.  

08:21 Well, along with that, I mean, in terms of staying in your lane. You know, this is, you are the uncle Matt. You're the chief uncle. You got all this fun branding going with that side of it. But there is a whole different side that I'm guessing a lot of our listeners have no idea how it works. You know, you're juice, you grew up in the orange orchards, but you've offered, you're offering now tons of different fruits. And tons of different varieties of juices that you juice. Tell us about that process of, of, uh, selecting from different, different farmers and, and how does that relationship work between you and other ag guys who may be better off selling to a simply or, uh, you know, some of these bigger companies. And here they are working with you. 

09:02 Well, so one thing about us is we really care about quality, right? I mean, that's the first thing. So we want to buy the best and we want to work with the best. And, uh, as growers ourselves, we can relate with citrus growers. We can relate with other fruit growers. Uh, and we kind of talk their language around organic and farming. And so I'm genuinely interested in their farming practices. I'm genuinely interested in different regions around the world. And how they can grow, you know, anything from a pineapple that we use to a tumeric root that we'll put in, uh, to ginger, all of those things, you know, we look for the best quality ingredients. And then obviously, uh, farmers that we think go above and beyond and have, um, you know, premium products that we can source from. So they look at us, uh, to see a reflection somewhat of themselves. Uh, and then they see our brand and what we've accomplished and say, yeah, I want to be part of that. I want to be plugged into somebody that's really growing the category that's pushing the envelope and innovation with functional ingredients and other items that are new in that refrigerator case. So it's been fun because every year we. We get a little bigger, we have a little bit more following and a little bit more recognition and to some extent our job becomes easier when we get introduced to a new, uh, grower or a new supplier because, um, it's easy. A lot of them have heard of us now. So, um, or before it was. You know, Hey, you know, look at me. I'm this little tiny guy. Trust me. Uh, you know, you want to work with me, please, please, please.  

12:19 Totally, totally well. And I mean, along with that, you know, my mind's racing everywhere because I, you know, I, my first, uh, junior college I went to out of high school was, uh, deep in the potato farmlands of Idaho. And so I, we would do a lot of case studies in my econ classes and things like that with the farmers, because that was, The industry around us all the time. And so, you know,  one of the big problems I saw with the Idaho guys was that the, the,  you know, the land acquisition, the farming techniques, the equipment, like all those things, all the farmers knew really, really well, but it was the integration with technology. And in your case, logistics, shipping, bottling, pick and pack, like all the different parts and pieces that you've got to now deal with outside of just farming your, your orchards. How did that happen? And how did you become so fluent in that language? Is that something you picked up or studied or how did that happen? 

13:20 So kind of advice you give any business entrepreneur as you grow,  you are not going to be the smartest guy in the room. Uh, but you better quickly find the smartest guy in the room. And so if, uh, if operations is not your expertise or finance isn't your expertise or sales marketing, just kind of pick some of those, uh, different things within business that are very important, uh, you better find the right people. So we were fortunate, you know, to find a good, uh, people that are, uh, have experience in those areas and, and then teach them what we know. And give them the same kind of passion and guardrails that we look for with Uncle Matt's Uh, and then, you know, let them let them do their job and and encourage them and give them, you know Good goals to to meet and go after so we've been fortunate that way Um, you have to stay nimble We still deal with mother nature every year, you know One big issue we had in florida is we have citrus greening disease and Is a little bacterial infection spread by a little bug and it is pretty much wiped out a large portion of our citrus industry and us in particular, uh, we used to have farm 1500 acres all ourself that we took care of with 35 different growers, including our own acreage. Um, and then this bug showed up in 2015. And it rapidly changed our whole game. Um, so now today we have about 75 acres left That is strictly for research to try and find a cure for this little bug  bacteria that it causes Yeah, but in that time frame we had to  immensely pivot and we had to source from other organic growers that we had worked with and known from texas and california and mexico and now Even further beyond that Uh, to keep up with demand and high quality supplies. So  you have to learn, yeah, you have to learn a lot of different, uh, expertise. And so purchasing operations and logistics to really get stuff. Uh here, um, on a timely basis because we're we're pretty much a just in time operation. It's perishable product I believe it make it we gotta ship it. We gotta sell it, It doesn't sit on the dock very long It's not hot filled. It's not shelf stable. I mean, this is high quality premium stuff So everything is a just in time model if I had to do it over again Uh, as that young and dumb entrepreneur in the very beginning, I would have said, maybe you should try shelf stable, give yourself a little bit more time. I may still have a bigger head of hair. You know, 

15:59 Right, right, right, right. No, I get it. I get it No, the the problems you're describing are very very interesting You know a lot of our uh listening audience is kind of in this this stage. Um of Hey, i've launched my business. I kind of know what i'm doing now Now it's time to get into a growth stage and and you kind of hit that a long time ago But walk us back a little bit into You know, were there some key decisions along the way? I mean, I got to imagine most of your decisions came from what you just described, uh, uh, mother nature dealt you a bad hand and you had to figure a way around it, but what are some things like that you intentionally made decisions on that have changed the course of how you operate today?  

16:41 Yeah, I mean, you, you have key decisions just about every month, right? Uh, there's key decisions in business, um, and some are bigger than others, but you know, for us, it was in the beginning, supply has always been the king for organic and we always needed to develop great relationships for, um, a supply base. We started doing it early on to build our own supply base in Florida. From there, we had to pivot. Now we're literally building a global supply base. And so finding the right people to partner with, finding the right employees that can help you build that global supply base, you know, that was a key one for us. The other key thing along the way is, you know, which channels to focus on, uh, you know, which sales channel, right? So in food, we have a variety of channels you can focus on. You can focus on food service, which is hotels, schools, restaurants. You can focus on retail, right? So, uh, the Walmart, the Publix, the Kroger, Whole Foods, those guys, you can focus on convenience. Uh, the seven 11s and all those guys. So there's a multiple channels there and they all have their different, uh, issues and problems, nuances. And so we first, we just decided, Hey, we want to be the organic version. Uh, of one of the, you know, larger brands. We want to be that organic premium. Uh, version of Tropicana or Simply. And so we stayed in the retail side and then you have to figure out from that retail side, Do you start regionally, uh, locally? Do you try and go after a national, you know, Whole Foods guy and try and get a national?  So you really have to be focused so you don't have a shotgun, uh, blast and you go out to too many places that it either depletes your cash if you're not ready for that kind of growth, or you gotta, you know, you have to pay slotting to get into the retail doors. You have to be prepared and really manage your cash and be focused on which channel, which direction, uh, and then lean into it, make sure that's your product, that's my expertise, I'm doing this. Um, in the beginning, once I had a little success with Uncle Matt's with Orange Juice, I thought, well, maybe I can do milk. Maybe I could do baby food. You know, maybe there's this brand could be, you know, massive  and it wastes a lot of time, a lot of time, energy and effort. Um, where your competition can quickly, if they are focused, they take the right account, they go in and they get on the shelf in front of you because you were chasing some other shiny ball. So, you know, just stay focused on really laser focused on what you do best and where your market niche is, where you have the competitive advantage, and then really stay focused on that.  

19:32 I love it. I love it. And, and you're right. Shiny object syndrome is so real and, uh, and, and you could probably justify. A thousand reasons why baby food makes sense when you've got all these organic growers giving you product and you You know what? I mean? Like I can see your mind is going down that pathway thinking this is it honey. We're gonna make a huge here.  

19:52 Yeah, so you have to really we have to do that while my mile deep Is what they tell you really try and stay in that lane And if it doesn't work then be able to pivot into well. Maybe that's not what the customer really wanted and can I do something closer or more adjacent to it?You Uh, in near the category, maybe that's better.  

20:14 Smart, smart. That's great advice. You know, was there an example specifically like were you able to reach a retail? Uh, uh distribution pretty easily or what what was kind of the first big win? Looking back that that broadened your ability to distribute  

20:31 Yeah, so, for me, the first, uh, when I started Uncle Matt's, I needed to run 600 cases, that was my minimum run, okay? And I had about two weeks, I had about two weeks to move it out of the warehouse, because I only had a 60 day shelf life.  Right, that's crazy. And the retailer asked for so much time, they needed the most time to get it through their store.  And so I really had to be able to move that volume. And I started with some produce distributors and selling to the organic, um, produce sets. And then I also found. A local health foods chain that had, uh, called Chamberlain's. They had about, I think, 12 stores. They brought it in. And then I had another small supermarket chain locally called Goodings in between the three of them. I had just enough business to make it through that 600 cases. Every time just barrel. Right. So then I had to really, I kept chipping away, kept chipping away. I found a good broker, a good sales broker that then helped me, uh, get it in many more independent Chamberlain type stores up and down the East coast. So I started expanding my distribution with them. And so I was continuing to sell more and more. And then I got my big break. Uh, the big break was Publix. I had been calling on them for two years, you know, wearing that poor buyer out, you know, come on, I'm the local guy shopping public  Right, right, right guys. He should have filed a restraining order against me, but he was very calm. He was very understanding Raul Garcia. He was just a heck of a nice guy. He was firm Uh, but he he was uh, very uh patient with me because we did have a good product. But he had another product in there already that was organic It was an orange juice brand, and that company, uh, got out of the business. And so there was an opportunity, and I had been knocking on that door for two years and I'll never forget it was on nine 11. So literally a bad day, the, the, the twin towers, the first twin, the first tower had collapsed. Raul Garcia calls me on the phone and says, Hey Matt, on a really bad day, I've got some really good news for you.  And I was kind of in shock from, you know, both emotions, like really high and really low, like, wow. I knew I'll never forget this day. Uh, for many reasons and still every, every 9, 11, I remember the high and the low, but that was my big, that was the big one because that was a thousand stores at that time. And that then gave me the economy scale really put me on the map. And, and I've never looked back since then. From there, we, you know, we got Whole Foods nationwide. You got a Kroger nationwide. You got a couple other big ones and they just kept. You know, having success and going one plateau after the next.  

23:17 I love it. I love it. No, that, that, that is awesome. Uh, I definitely remember that day, uh, where I was and what happened and I'm impressed you, you answered your phone. I remember. Yeah. I just remember that day being so chaotic and I, I got to think that as an emotional day already, and then you get that call. That must've been so awesome. 

23:39 I had one, I had one employee and that one employee was, she was from New York, uh, New York city. And she started crying and I was like, Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. You need to go home. You need to go home, call your family, uh, get in touch with them. So, so, you know, there was nobody to even answer the phone except me and my one employer gone home.  And I was like, Hello, uncle Matt. 

24:08 Matt, that's awesome. I love that story. Now, now with that, I got to imagine going from, A few stores here and there to a thousand stores brought a whole new set of problems. Would you mind sharing like kind of what kind of things did you not expect? I'm sure you kind of had in your head this vision of like we're going big we're going national, and then now you're all of a sudden hit with new batches of problems. Walk us through some of that. 

24:32 Well, so the next step is so how do you source that much right? I mean at that time I was probably selling to them at most you know, 400, maybe 500 total stores. And then suddenly I had, you know, a thousand, and the thousand was public. So, you know, all of a sudden, like, whoa, a lot more supply. So I had to really ramp up purchasing of, of, uh, you know, get to my grower group, like, Hey, can we supply this? Yep. Okay. Right. You know, here's what's coming. I got to buy more boxes, uh, cartons, caps, everything. And so we really had to, you know, make sure we were in stock and had enough product and then, you know, how do you get it to promote correctly in public? So I had to learn pretty quickly. Fast on what's the right promotional schedule, how deep do you go, do you get 50 cents off, a dollar off, two bucks off, do you promote for one week, two weeks, so you had to kind of get in that right rhythm, the right cadence, so your customer would see you, but you didn't over promote and spend too much money because you could quickly, now it's a thousand store mistake. If you're like, well, let's do two bucks off, let's do two bucks off. I'm like, Oh my gosh, it's a $50,000 bill back,  you know, you get, you have roadkill. So, you know, those are some of the things that, um, you, you learn pretty quick. Um, you know, what's the right thing to do there. I eventually, um, had a broker  that I, um, hired to help me with the public's account called Doug Emery. He was  guy. Great friends, still today. But he was very he you know, here's the right way to work with Publix. Uh, and then also, you know, every year you had a review schedule, you know, what kind of data you needed to show them. And he helped me with his company cause they could purchase data. I couldn't afford the data. So he would help build the deck on, you know, why Uncle Matt's was compelling. Why we were bringing in more people to the set and it was, you know, growing the whole set. It wasn't cannibalizing the set, but it was bringing in  new customers to the set. It was creative to his sales. It was a creative to his sales base and it was, um, bringing customers in from other stores because of that. So those kinds of things were key findings and key learnings that then helped me perform well in public. So then I could show to other big retailers, like, Hey, this can work in your conventional store. This little organic.  

27:04 I love it. I love it. I got to imagine there were so many so many little things like even just like in my head thinking about the the discounting and the and the rebates and the I mean all that stuff you're you're learning. You've already grew up learning the farming side and now you're talking about sourcing to other farmers and building that volume that you need to produce at that level. And, uh, and Holy Cow, then you got to learn the whole retail marketplace. Like that's, that's a lot of stuff. And then logistics, shipping, packing, and

27:37 Then you got it. Then you got to get it to all of their warehouses, Publix's warehouse. So now you're, you know, in the logistics team in a bigger way. And, and Publix, um, They are a fantastic company to work with, but they are operationally driven. So when they put a PO in and they have a delivery date, you need to make it. If you don't, uh, like the buyer will tell you, we'll find somebody that will.  So you have to be very, you know, just in time, operationally driven. Um, they're also a fantastic customer to get in the beginning because they, um, they're very straightforward and they're very honest.Um, it's, you know, Hey, you bill us this, we pay you that. And there's not many deductions. It's very straightforward. There's not a lot of shenanigans, which, um, there's many retailers that just waste your time, they want to try and ding you for all kinds of silly stuff at the dock, which is ridiculous. Your palate's always bad. No, it's not. There's no way my palate is always bad. Come on. So they're just little money, moneymakers for some of these. You know, that, uh, are retailers, but Publix is not Publix is very straight, very honest, uh, I love them, you know, um, so,  

28:58 Well, it sounds to me like your journey is a lot like other people, even though, you know, a lot of the people we have on the show are, I think you're one of the first ag distributors that I've ever had on the show, but I love it because the lessons you just described are so, uh, congruent with the lessons that other people have to learn in their growth journeys, which is. You know, having the right people, the right processes, the right tools. Um, I think those are the common threads between everybody's growth journey. And you've had to figure them out in your, in your vertical, the same way other people have had to in theirs. 

29:30 Yeah. Yeah. Business is business, right? Um, and so no matter which business you're in, you're going to have some real key underlying themes  and that's what you see, right? 

29:45 Love  it.  Well, Matt, this is fantastic. I, I, for those of you listening who have, who have been, uh, Wondering about your own growth journey. I highly recommend you relisten to this podcast again and again, because there are very few people who are in business in the same business as long as Matt has been it. Um, you know, you probably don't want to hear that, Matt, but  It's 26  years in the same biz, 25 years. That is a, that is an amazing benchmark and just a fascinating, I got to believe that if we, if we talk for another hour, we could probably talk about tons of different things we didn't have a chance to touch on right now, but all congruent with your growth journey. And I appreciate you taking the time today to share that with us. 

30:29 Hey, you're welcome. Um, and I'd love to talk to you again. No problem. And I love talking business. I love helping other. Entrepreneurs, right? Um, you know, small business is the engine that runs America. Uh, and if I can help small business run America, I'm all for you. So, um, thanks for doing what you do. And I hope somebody helped them, um, stay out of the ditch on their growth journey. 

30:50 Right?  Right. I hope you've given them the juice that they need to, uh, to keep going.  

31:55 You're catching on Todd. This is great.