Orange Julius International Shifts Identity, Management
When Custom Creamery Systems was negotiating last year to buy Santa Monica-based Orange Julius International, officials of the target company insisted on a provision that made sense to the buyer--that Custom Creamery, a New York-based franchiser of shopping center eateries offering ice cream and other desserts, change its name to Orange Julius International if the deal went through.
“We felt the Orange Julius name was much better known; we saw the change as an accommodation in negotiations and a positive step for public identification,” said James Hennessy, a spokesman for the company, which was formed by the merger in December. There are about 745 Orange Julius outlets in the United States and Canada that sell the company’s trademark drink, derived from orange juice.
Last week the company, which had sales of $129 million in the first nine months of 1985, instituted a management change that it said is designed to bring more efficient organization to its main subsidiaries--Orange Julius; Hawthorn Mellody, a Wisconsin-based dairy company, and American Videotronics, which has about 20,000 vending machines in the Midwest.
James J. Bischoff, president of Orange Julius of America in Santa Monica, will become president and chief operating officer of the parent. He will also retain his posts with the subsidiary “for the time being,” Hennessy said.
“Bischoff’s strength is (as) a professional manager,” he said. “We’ll depend on that to get our three disparate companies into a more centrally managed organization.”
The company also said Hans H. Kuppers has resigned as vice president and chief executive. Bischoff assumes the president’s post from Munawar H. Hidayatallah, who remains chairman and takes the additional post of chief executive.
In a statement, Hidayatallah said the company plans to develop and market a quality line of health and nutrition products, with emphasis on juices and juice drinks, calcium-reinforced milk and tofu products.
