The company also bought ads in local papers, alerting consumers to the recall, and offered to cover medical expenses for anyone affected by the contaminated juice. For 15 years, we built a reservoir of goodwill in the Bay Area. When crisis struck, some of that goodwill drained away, but a lot of people still believed in Odwalla, partially because we never deceived or manipulated them. When things go bad, people want to look inside a company and to see whether its soul is good. Jump On It For a small company with highly perishable products, time is more than money.
Time is survival.
When Seattle's health officials contacted Williamson that day in October, he didn't first call his lawyer or summon the board of directors. While one team worked to reassure distributors, another team devised new formulas for Odwalla drinks containing apple or carrot juice. Greg Steltenpohl had built the company on a promise of absolute freshness and insisted that pasteurization stripped juice of its taste and nutrients. Odwalla originally believed that it could avoid harmful bacteria in its juicing process by passing along its high standards to fruit growers and handlers. Odwalla instructed its suppliers to harvest only tree-picked fruit that had not fallen to the ground.