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Doug Levin ’79 Is Making A Big Splash
In The Juice Business
Exeter Bulletin, Fall 1998
You’ve watched the infomercials, maybe you even bought yourself
a juice machine. But now there’s an easier way to get your five
daily servings of fruits and veggies, and thanks to Doug Levin ’79,
all you have to do is “Shake it up, baby.” Fresh Samantha,
a line of ultra-fresh, ultra-tasty fresh-squeezed juices is available
in supermarkets, health food stores and college campuses all over the
New England, and now New York City and the nation’s capital as
well. Exonians can stock up on their favorites at The Grill, whether
it’s Mango Mama, Desperately Seeking C, or my own personal favorite,
Super Juice with Echinacea.
After graduating from Wesleyan in 1984, Doug took off for the Big Apple
and a career in advertising, where he worked as an art director at
Doyle, Dane & Birnbach, and then at Saatchi & Saatchi. Seven years later,
suffering from a severe case of big city overload, Doug traded in the
Big Apple for a big carrot, moving to Maine and buying out a local carrot
juice company called 24 Carrot. In 1992, with the help of his wife Abby
Carter and Abby’s family, Doug founded Fresh Samantha.
“It’s a family business,” explains Doug, the company’s
CEO. “When we sat down to strategize about making this juice
company work, my wife, my in-laws, my brother in-law and his wife,
were all actively
involved. I thought it would be charming to name the line of juices
after our daughter, Samantha. My wife is an illustrator and it was
she who
came up with the bright and energetic logo we have—a sketch of Samantha
cavorting among fruits and vegetables. My in-laws all had experience
in running a small business in the natural foods arena. Together,
we came up with a plan we thought could work.”
The plan has more than worked. According to an April 1998 Forbes magazine
article, Fresh Samantha squeezed out its first profits last year
when
sales jumped to $7 million, up from $2.8 million in 1996. Sales in
1998 are projected at $14 million. Levin’s goals for the future
are ambitious. “We want to dominate every market as the highest
quality supplier of super premium juices in the Northeast.” Because
of their just-in-time manufacturing process, taking the product nation-wide
would require opening new processing facilities outside of the one
in
Buxton, Maine. But according to Levin, “There’s a place
for this product in the mass market—I’m convinced of it.”
—Stephanie Casale
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