ORLANDO – Chris Byrd and his golf group were sitting out a rain delay at a golf course in St. Louis more than 25 years ago when he ordered an Arnold Palmer, the lovely combination of iced tea and lemonade. That sparked a conversation on the concept of marketing the drink to the men that became his business partners – Charlie Beck and Mark Dowey – in what would become Innovative Flavors, Inc. – and before they knew it they were scratching out a business plan on the back of a napkin.
“Every bartender knew what an Arnold Palmer was, but he’d never made a penny off it,” Byrd recalled. “It was an idea whose time had come.”
Twenty-five years ago, the official Arnold Palmer beverage was born, sold by the AriZona Beverage Company as the Arnold Palmer Half & Half and becoming one of the fastest-growing beverages in the U.S. with sales of more than 500 million cans a year, according to a recent company press release.
“This milestone isn’t just about shelf success,” Byrd said. “It’s about shared vision and trust. Arnold Palmer brought a name and a legacy; AriZona brought scale and creativity. Together, we built a brand that feels timeless, not trendy, and that’s rare in the beverage world.”…