Nantucket Nectars
Tom Scott and Tom First were college friends that spent their summers selling drinks and providing grocery and laundry delivery services to boats in Nantucket Harbor. Following graduation they returned to Nantucket Harbor and expanded their floating business to include making fresh juice drinks which customers seemed to love. This prompted the two friends to open Allserve General Store on Nantucket’s Straight Wharf. Other stores in Nantucket began selling their juices and they sold 8,000 cases the first year and 20,000 the following year (Harvard Business School, 2000). While the two friends started the business on what seems to be a whim and with no real business plan or model, they did experience success:
• They created …show more content…
With increased success and projected growth, they had to wrestle with the questions of whether to sell, go public, or remain independent? One option they considered was to organize an auction of Nantucket Nectars and let other companies compete or outbid each other. This option would most likely garner a higher price but, there would be no guarantee that the company would be sold to someone that would maintain the company culture or continue to share the story of how the company …show more content…
In an interview with Tom First, he said their key to continued success is to listen to the customer, focus on what you know, and learn from your mistakes (Wharton School, 1999). Listening to their customer and developing products that they will purchase is the cornerstone of their business. If no one buys the product, the company fails. Hiring someone to take care of the business end of things allowing them to focus on what they know, making high quality juice, would be a helpful strategy. The owners are the first to admit they did not know what they were doing in those early days, but they were open to learning from their mistakes and making
Tom Scott and Tom First were college friends that spent their summers selling drinks and providing grocery and laundry delivery services to boats in Nantucket Harbor. Following graduation they returned to Nantucket Harbor and expanded their floating business to include making fresh juice drinks which customers seemed to love. This prompted the two friends to open Allserve General Store on Nantucket’s Straight Wharf. Other stores in Nantucket began selling their juices and they sold 8,000 cases the first year and 20,000 the following year (Harvard Business School, 2000). While the two friends started the business on what seems to be a whim and with no real business plan or model, they did experience success:
• They created …show more content…
With increased success and projected growth, they had to wrestle with the questions of whether to sell, go public, or remain independent? One option they considered was to organize an auction of Nantucket Nectars and let other companies compete or outbid each other. This option would most likely garner a higher price but, there would be no guarantee that the company would be sold to someone that would maintain the company culture or continue to share the story of how the company …show more content…
In an interview with Tom First, he said their key to continued success is to listen to the customer, focus on what you know, and learn from your mistakes (Wharton School, 1999). Listening to their customer and developing products that they will purchase is the cornerstone of their business. If no one buys the product, the company fails. Hiring someone to take care of the business end of things allowing them to focus on what they know, making high quality juice, would be a helpful strategy. The owners are the first to admit they did not know what they were doing in those early days, but they were open to learning from their mistakes and making