Greg Steltenpohl was an entrepreneur who founded the beverage companies Odwalla and Califia Farms.
- Died: March 11, 2021 (Who else died on March 11?)
- Details of death: Died of complications of a liver transplant at the age of 67.
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Creating new beverages
Steltenpohl was a young man playing saxophone in an experimental jazz band when he founded Odwalla in 1980 to help pay the bills. Juicing oranges in his back yard and selling juice out of the back of his band’s van, he began to create a following for the fresh, intensely flavored juice in blends with catchy names, including Mango Tango and Blueberry Monster. Odwalla took off, and it quickly gained widespread popularity as part of a new wellness boom. But in 1993, E. coli in a batch of Odwalla apple juice made resulted in dozens of illnesses and one death. The tragedy was damaging to Odwalla, and some years later, Steltenpohl sold the brand to Coca-Cola, which entirely discontinued the brand in July 2020.
Steltenpohl later rebounded and founded Califia Farms in 2012, creating nut milks as the appetite for plant-based foods increased. Califia Farms was born after Steltenpohl began outfitting a factory to create a juice from Cuties mandarin oranges – but when his supplier backed out, he needed to find a new use for the factory. Having tested an almond milk shake with Odwalla, Steltenpohl refined the formula and had a hit. Califia Farms later expanded to sell other products including coffee mixed with nut milks.
Steltenpohl on his early entrepreneurial days
“Everyone who was a musician back then was basically living out of a VW bus. We quit living in ours and began selling juice out of the back.” —from a 2016 interview with the New York Times
Tributes to Greg Steltenpohl
Full obituary: San Francisco Chronicle
