By Menachem Wecker
The next fruit cocktail you drink, if it’s made by GW alumnus John Gallagher, B.A. ’87, could literally help save lives.
“We feel that every company should dedicate a portion of its profits to any charity of its choice,” says Mr. Gallagher, chief executive officer of Mapa, which imports products from the Panama-based Del Prado Gourmet Nectars and Juices. Mr. Gallagher’s grandfather, Ricardo Chiari, co-founded Del Prado in 1958.
Mr. Gallagher and his wife, Patricia, run both Mapa and the Children of Ayacucho Fund, which they created after a classmate of Mrs. Gallagher’s contacted her on behalf of a Catholic priest in Ayacucho, Peru, named Father Antonio, who was seeking a table for children and elderly people in Ayacucho, who had to eat on the floor. “We realized that instead of building this table we could build a dining hall,” says Mr. Gallagher.
In 2009, Del Prado donated 665 cases of nectar and juice and a sizable cash donation to the fund, which builds schools and orphanages for poor children in Ayacucho, Peru. “We got involved, because these people have nothing. Well, they have a wonderful priest and a church, but they are victims of a terrorist group that literally wiped them out, to the point that any citizen between the ages of 20 and 40 ran to Lima,” says Mr. Gallagher. “Our goal is to change the landscape of American business and have every company embrace social responsibility.”
Mr. Gallagher, who split his time growing up between the United States and Panama, did not always have aspirations of running a beverage company. When he came to GW in 1983, he was interested in politics. “I knew that attending GW would prepare me in many ways for a career in politics,” he says. “I never imagined that halfway into my studies I would switch gears and change my declared major.”
After finding that he enjoyed his psychology courses more than his political science classes, Mr. Gallagher changed his major. He found it ironic that his new academic focus was very helpful when he worked for the D.C. government. He also found himself drawing on his psychology training when he worked as a chef, kitchen manager and food services manager at Hillstone Restaurant Group, Cheesecake Factory and Guckenheimer. He went on to earn an associate’s degree in culinary arts at Johnson and Wales University in North Miami, Fla.
In 2008, when his grandfather died, Mr. Gallagher’s relatives asked him to become more involved in the family’s business ventures in Panama. He accepted the invitation to launch Del Prado on the West Coast.
Mr. Gallagher admits it is “a daunting task” to try to build a nationally recognized brand, particularly in a competitive industry like the beverage one. “Many people have said that we are crazy ‘playing’ in the arena with the big boys that produce a majority of the sodas and bottled drinks in the United States,” he says. “But a very dear friend of mine once told me, ‘The sun shines on everyone.’”
To survive as a little fish in a large nectar pond, Mr. Gallagher says, requires knowing your juice-producing rivals. “My grandfather once told me that you should only worry about selling product with the highest quality,” he says. “That advice is very sound, but we also feel that if you ever lose sight of your competition you might not be in the right arena.”
Del Prado’s products -- mango, guava, fruit punch, peach and pear nectars, and pineapple juice -- are sold throughout California. The San Francisco-based company also sells its beverages through Amazon.com, and it is in the process of launching state by state and is seeking distributors to work in specific regions, says Mr. Gallagher.
“My degree in psychology is critical in networking and interacting with clients, distributors and, yes, even competitors,” says Mr. Gallagher. “There are many times when you listen to what your competitors say – and what they do not say.”
At Mapa, that competitive edge means not only sticking to core products, but also developing new flavors and trying to forecast what trends may be on the horizon. Mr. Gallagher has found that, particularly with the poor economy, customers are overwhelmingly likely to buy a brand name that provides the feeling of “comfort food.”
“If customers have a dollar to spend, they will choose the brand they know from their hometown or one that their family has purchased for years,” he says. “This is not to say that they would not choose Del Prado, but it seems a tighter budget may influence a consumer to not take a chance with a new label regardless of the quality.”
Quality is something that the Gallaghers take very seriously. Beverage companies sought a cheaper replacement for sugar cane en masse in the 1960s, Mr. Gallagher says, which compromised the taste. Not so Del Prado, “because we have been producing our nectars the only way Mother Nature intended us to – naturally,” says Mr. Gallagher.
“Our competitors will not agree with us, but when you compare the taste of our nectars with others that have high fructose corn syrup, you can certainly recognize the difference,” he says.
Another recognizable difference is sure to be found in Ayacucho.