ORLANDO, Fla. — Chris Byrd would never be caught dead littering, but he readily admits that he smiles whenever he sees an empty can of Arnold Palmer Half & Half.
He remarked, “There goes a few more pennies for me.”
On Friday, Byrd, 72, marked the 20th anniversary of reaching a contract with AriZona Beverage, the world’s largest iced tea manufacturer, to market the Arnold Palmer brand of half-iced tea, half-lemonade, which has become one of the fastest-growing beverages in the United States. You might wonder how big it is.
Byrd stated, “We’re selling the equivalent of a million cans a day.”
According to legend, Palmer came up with the concept of combining these two pleasant beverages one day and told his first wife, Winnie, about it.
“For lunch, my wife made a lot of iced tea, and I remarked to her, ‘Hey, baby, I’ve got an idea.’ You make the iced tea in a large pitcher, and we’ll simply add a splash of lemonade to see how it goes.’ In a “ESPN 30 for 30” segment, he recounted, “We mixed it up, and I had the solution about where I wanted it, and I put the lemonade in it.” “After working on the golf course, I had it for lunch.” ‘Boy, this is fantastic, babe,’ I thought. When I go golfing, I’m going to take it. I’m bringing iced tea and lemonade in a thermos.’
Years later, during a rain delay at a golf outing in St. Louis, Byrd had ordered his share of Arnold Palmers and was sipping one when he suggested marketing the drink to the men who would become his business partners – Charlie Beck and Mark Dowey – in what would become Innovative Flavors, Inc., and scratched out the business plan that would become Arnold Palmer Tea on the back of a paper napkin.
“I had this notion that it had already been a brand for close to 20 years,” Byrd explained. “Every bartender knew what an Arnold Palmer was, but he’d never made a dime off one.” It was an idea that had reached its apogee.”
Byrd had previously worked as the president of a chocolate division, designing ice cream flavors, and selling dairy goods in the food and beverage industry. Many of his dairy clients switched to tea and lemonade for their fluid lines over the summer.
He made the coldest of cold calls to IMG, Palmer’s business manager, and was allowed a meeting on the Monday following the 2001 Arnold Palmer Invitational. Byrd went to Kinkos and printed ten copies of his business plan and brought three samples, including one from his flavor company (Allen Flavors in New Jersey).
Although Byrd resided close to Palmer’s Bay Hill Club and Lodge, he had never met the great golfer. Byrd was 12 years old when he saw Palmer play in a tournament at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, in 1962, according to his self-published book “The Original Arnold Palmer Tea Story.” After the round, Byrd’s mother, who worked as a waitress at the restaurant, took Palmer’s order, and he hugged her. Byrd wrote, “He did that since her name was Birdie.”
On the day of Byrd’s presentation, it rained in Orlando. He sat in a conference room until Alistair Johnston, Palmer’s right-hand man, arrived. Byrd took him through the first few pages of the business plan until Johnston interrupted, stood up, and walked away, only to return with Palmer.
“Young man,” Palmer continued, “I assume you have something very interesting for me.”
He did, in fact. Byrd poured his sample and had Palmer blind taste-test his iced tea and lemonade blend against Minute Maid and Paul Newman’s current offerings on the market.
“Thank fully, he liked ours the best,” Byrd recounted.
Then they got down to business, and Johnston did what he always did when a customer wanted to team up with his living legend. He demanded the entire planet, largely in cash up advance.
“I said, ‘This is the greatest presentation I’ve ever seen.’ But I’m willing to back out because I can’t afford to put up the money you’re looking for. Simply said, I’m not going to do it. So, why don’t you simply do it yourself?” said Byrd.
He then inquired if anyone had any other questions. Palmer was in possession of one.
“You’re going to give up that easily?” Palmer remarked.
Byrd reiterated his inability to write a large check.
Palmer understood his predicament. “Can’t you think of something new?” he pondered. Rather than dismissing Byrd, he saw that Byrd possessed the essential industry connections to make this proposal a success, and he was ready to cut him a deal so he could give it a shot.
Byrd said to turn to the page with the royalties model for the next five years, thinking swiftly on his feet. He offered to negotiate because he thought there might be some wriggle room.
Palmer said, “I like it.” “Let’s get this done,” says the narrator.
They exchanged handshakes and signed contracts two months later.
Byrd toured the country with Palmer, meeting everyone from store presidents to customers and telling them stories before sending them home with an autographed picture of The King.
While the company began with ten dairies as investors, Byrd and his colleagues quickly realized there was much more potential. In a 2016 report for Golfweek, Dowey, one of three founding partners of Innovative Flavors, said his company immediately began receiving inquiries “from golfers’ wives claiming their husbands were seeing the drink at their clubs but couldn’t locate it anyplace else.”
They chose Arizona based on the advice of Allen Flavors, which also invented many of the company’s best-selling items. The drink named after Arnold Palmer wasn’t exactly a hit right away.
In a 2013 ABC News piece, Arizona’s chairman, Don Vultaggio, remarked, “Over the first few years, I say, most organizations our size would have given up on it.” “Because, you know, most huge corporations will say, ‘Eh, it’s not worth it,’ if the numbers don’t hit what I’ll term a’meaningful number’ after six months.”
However, because Vultaggio loved Palmer and believed “there was gold there, but it was deep down,” he gave the product a longer leash.
By 2008, Arnold Palmer Iced Tea had more than doubled its sales, with bottles ranging in size from the most popular 20-ounce 99-cent bottle to the 64-ounce plastic container. In 2010, sales were reported to have exceeded $100 million. It has continued to grow, according to Byrd, with $300 million in retail sales.
Byrd claims that “we sell more than all the other branded half-and-half drinks combined.” “Whenever I saw Arnold at Bay Hill, he’d stop me and ask, ‘Do you have any tea today, Chris?’ He’d give me a thumbs up and smile.’
Byrd believes there is plenty of room for future expansion. In July 2017, Miller-Coors agreed to distribute Arnold Palmer Spiked, an alcoholic variant with 5% malt alcohol. It has evolved into a $50 million company in just five years.
“It’s been a beautiful 20 years, and I’m hoping for another 20,” Byrd added.
So the royalties keep coming in, which was incentive enough for the brain trust behind this runaway success story and their families to congregate at Chatham’s Place Restaurant on Friday evening following the second round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The veal was requested by Byrd. All that was lacking were cans of Arnold Palmer Iced Tea, strangely enough. Instead, they drank wine to celebrate their triumph.
Alex Byrd, Byrd’s son, who attended the meal, stated, “It’s the epitome of the American Dream.” “My father grew up in a family that couldn’t afford golf, but Arnold was a childhood hero of his, and later in life, with experience, courage, and a little luck, my father was able to develop a successful business with Mr. Palmer.”
