Building a successful brand isn’t San Diego-based Suja Life LLC’s only mission. For those in the company, it’s about more than the product. “From a company standpoint, we want to make a difference in the lives of our consumers,” Suja’s Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Jeff Church says. “And we want to close the gap on organic accessibility…food production in the U.S. that’s organic is only 4 percent … And yet there was a Gallup survey result that I saw not too long ago [that] surveyed American consumers and asked them … do you want more accessibility to organic in your daily lives? Forty-five percent of the population wanted more accessibility to organic. So what we’re trying to do is close the gap…and we feel like that’s a worthy goal to do because it just gives people a cleaner, better, more transparent product to consume.”
According to Nicole Vidaurreta, vice president of sales for club, mass and specialty, Suja’s success can be attributed to Church’s leadership. “I know that he’s probably never going to give himself credit, but the reason that Suja is what it is, is because he is such an innovative leader. He’s such an inclusive leader and he gives people [a chance] that you wouldn’t necessarily, that other companies wouldn’t necessarily give a chance,” she says. “[The company is made of] all super young, passionate people and it empowers people to step out and do some awesome stuff. So I think his leadership is key to the success of Suja by far.”