Ed started his foodservice career with the Campbell Soup Company in 1981 as a Sales Specialist in the Northern Florida territory based out of Jacksonville, Florida. In 1983, Ed moved to Atlanta, GA where he accepted the promotion to District Supervisor responsible for supervising the sales activities over the South eastern US. In 1984 Ed was recruited by Quaker Oats Company to become the District Sales Manager for the South eastern US to manage its rapidly growing Foodservice Division. Two years later, Ed accepted a promotion as the National Training Manager based out of Quaker’s National headquarters in Chicago, IL. That position allowed Ed to gain tremendous knowledge about the juice industry due to his assignment of developing training programs for both Quaker’s beverage subsidiaries; Ardmore Farms and Richardson Foods.With Ed’s new found knowledge in training, coupled with his passion to help others, he embarked on a project to assist people on how to get the job of their dreams. So he left Quaker in 1989 to pursue the development of a training aid (books on tape) titled; The Job Interview, the key to landing the job. After a one-year hiatus from food-service and promoting his book on television and radio, Ed was ready to return back to the industry he loved.Ed was quickly offered a consultant position with McCain Citrus (the largest private label, retail juice concentrate manufacturer in the world) to help strengthen the newly formed Foodservice division. Six months later he was asked to come aboard full time. While at McCain Citrus he oversaw sales growth of $6 million to $15 million in less than two years. While at McCain, Ed developed a strong relationship with Profitime as a juice supplier. That relationship eventually led to the principals of Profitime offering him a position with the opportunity of becoming a partner in the business. Ed joined the company as the Vice President of Sales in 1992 and doubled the sales over the next several years, expanding Profitime’s reach from the East Coast of the US to Japan. In 2012 Ed was promoted to President of Profitime.
Russ is a native Californian; raised in Sylmar. Russ married his high school sweetheart, Lori in 1982. Russ has two children; a son and daughter. His daughter, Emily, has now become a valued member of the Profitime staff. Soon after Russ joined Profitime, management realized that Russ possessed some very special talents in the equipment diagnostics area. Electrical, mechanical and refrigeration are all areas that came naturally to Russ. In addition, he was a creative problem solver. In 1989, at the age of 26, Russ was promoted to Service Manager. His responsibilities included the coordination of all the Profitime’s service activities. Three years later, Russ was promoted to Operations Manager of Profitime’s sister company-California Apple Products (CAP) and in 2010 was promoted to President of (CAP). As President, Russ ran a very successful company eight years returning millions of dollars to its investors until it became virtually impossible to conduct business as an apple processor in California competing against larger processors in Washington State. In late 2018, Profitime closed the operations of California Apple and Russ was convinced to come back to Profitime as a Managing Partner with Ed Sullivan. Russ spends the bulk of his time managing the Administration, Service and Operations Departments at Profitime and is intimately involved in all aspects of the business.
Humble Beginnings
Profitime had humble beginnings in a garage back in 1974 when Bert Lane and Sam Benoun started the company. Both men had extensive experience in the food service industry. They originally met in the ‘40’s when they were both working for Best Foods. Both men had a wealth of experience when Sunkist, a world leader in citrus products specifically asked the friends to start up a company to market and manage their dispenser juice program. The name of the newly developed Sunkist juice line was Profit Pak, which led to the company name, Profitime. The company focused on marketing and distributing dispenser juice concentrates and servicing and maintaining post-mix juice dispensers.
Iced Tea
In 1978, Profitime took over the master distributorship of Lipton fresh-brewed tea in Southern California. This was a strategic quantum leap for the company. It happened because the Thomas J. Lipton company was aware of Profitime’s ability to effectively market beverage concentrates and support those efforts with an outstanding dispenser service and maintenance program. Profitime went to work to develop and manage the Lipton’s fresh brewed iced tea program for Southern California.
Even as Profitime was expanding in other areas, the company recognized a need in the Institutional Market for a quality line of liquid tea concentrates to be used in dispensers. So, in 1980, Profitime began manufacturing and distributing liquid iced tea concentrate.
Like Father, Like Son
In 1986, James Lane joined the management team at Profitime. With a background in distributed computing and system analysis, James transitioned the company’s service and beverage distribution programs into electronic databases—improving service efficiency.
New Sales Management
In 1992 Profitime chose to expand the marketing scope of the company-- by hiring Ed Sullivan. Ed’s foodservice experience at Campbell Soup, Quaker Oats and McCain Citrus made him the ideal candidate for the job. His strong background in juice programs coupled with his sales and marketing skills brought a new perspective to the company.
New Juice Flavors Introduced
In 1993 we were the first dispenser juice company to introduce several tropical juice flavors (Passion-OJ-Guava, Strawberry-Guava and Kiwi Raspberry) into the marketplace. The move was a huge success that others have quickly followed.
Sunkist Dumped
In January 1994, Profitime made the decision to sever our relationship with Sunkist in order to gain more control over our own destiny. We believed that by developing our own branded juice line(s) and choosing our own suppliers it would remove the impediments that hindered our growth and options. This decision resulted in the creation of our first line named Millennium.
Smoothie Bars Begin to Flourish
In 1996, Profitime saw the need for a different juice line designed exclusively for the emerging Smoothie Bar trade. The company aligned itself with the premier Smoothie Bar distributor in the country, Southwest Traders. Together they have catapulted Profitime manufactured juice concentrates to the top of the industry. These juices are marketed under both the Rainbow’s End and Millennium names.
Company Acquisition
In 2004, Profitime acquired Pacific Western Beverage (PWB), headquartered in Sacramento, CA. PWB was a dispenser juice company that serviced the Northern California marketing area for over 15 years. All of PWB juice customers have been successfully transitioned to one or more of the Profitime programs.
Blue Frog Introduction
In 2012, Profitime made company history by developing its’ first line of shelf-stable, juice blends called Blue Frog. These four new flavors were inspired by the best selling Snapple flavors.
Vitamin Waters Introduced
In 2015, Profitime developed four sugar-free Vitamin Waters targeted for the Universities and Healthcare markets. This line was health-oriented extension of the Blue Frog Line of products.
Japan Partnership
Profitime began working closely with the renowned West Coast restaurant chain named Coco’s Bakery. Coco’s (and Carrow’s) were two chains that were owned by the Japanese conglomerate, ZENSHO. ZENSHO owned close to 5000 restaurants worldwide. Ed Sullivan convinced ZENSHO management to change their juice program for all 560 Coco’s locations in Japan from Coca Cola / Minute Maid to their own custom juice program. The new program was implemented in 2014 after Profitime developed two aseptically packed 100% juice products which were dispensed through ZENSHO’s newly acquired dispensers. Annual sales for this account exceeded $1,000,000.
Hawaii Discovered
Profitime joined up with an excellent full-line distributor partner on the island of Oahu called H&W Foodservice in 2018. Now over 15 Profitime-manufactured products are available to hospitality and healthcare facilities located throughout the island.
Military Conquered
Profitime teamed up with a company called US Dispense in 2019. The principals of US Dispense had a great deal of experience selling and servicing dispenser-based products into the US Military. Profitime modified several juices to meet the specific needs of our Military and was fortunate enough to win the bid (with US Dispense) supplying our forces in Okinawa, Japan.
The Future
The future looks bright (after COVID-19 passes) as Profitime continues to develop products and programs to meet the huge demand in dispenser-based beverages and continues to provide indispensable solutions for customers throughout the world.
