Pod Pack announced several new additions to its sales force, due to developments in single cup brewing opportunities. This regionally designed sales force will be focused on developing single cup brewing programs with operators around the country and on showing them ways to improve margins.
The sales force is led by Dan Ragan, national sales manager, who joined the company 15 months ago. He and his team are promoting Gold Cup quality in the cup using pods through consumer and end user demonstrations. Ragan has 32 years operator experience including office coffee, foodservice coffee, vending, bottled water, office supplies, and packaging. Through his career he has focused on developing value through consumer satisfaction, and he understands operator challenges with equipment, product quality, and cost to ROI. Ragan can be reached at [email protected] or 571-228-4331.
Tracy Clark has recently been appointed southwest regional sales manager based out of Texas. Tracy brings many years of experience in the OCS industry with most of it primarily focused on single cup. He worked several years with Diedrich Coffee and was part of the team that grew Diedrich to be the second largest producer of K-Cups in the industry. Clark is excited about growing another segment of the single cup industry – Pods. He can be reached at [email protected] or 214-282-2659.
Dick Black recently joined Pod Pack and has been appointed to be southeast regional sales manager based in Atlanta, Ga. Dick brings a wealth of experience in both the office coffee service and bottled water industries. You may already know Black as he was instrumental in the development of the OCS business channel with Suntory Water Group. He continued to promote coffee sales and growth as director of national accounts with DS Waters of America. Black can be reached at [email protected] or 770-329-3501.
Kevin Gundermann has recently accepted the western regional sales manager position. He is very passionate about coffee having been in the industry for 14 years. Gundermann was recently a regional manager for a vending and coffee service company based out of Las Vegas, Nev. and covered the Nevada and Southern California territories. Previously, Gundermann worked for Keurig Coffee systems for 4 ½ years as the Southwest regional sales manager where he grew the region from a distributor base of 10 dealers to 48 dealers. Gundermann is based out of Southern California and can be reached at [email protected] or 951-733-6174.
Lisa Sundstrom comes to us from Boston where she will manage our Northeast territory. After moving on from the specialty food industry in 2004, Sundstrom joined the Diedrich Coffee team. Her hard work drove the Northeast territory to become the largest producing territory for Diedrich Coffee within the OCS division. Pod Pack is proud to have her on board starting August 1. Sundstrom can be reached at [email protected] or 617-462-6030.
The sales force is supported by our customer service department, headed by Mandy Steward, customer service manager. Steward joined Pod Pack in July, 2009. Previously, she spent 15 years in various customer service rolls in banking, home construction, and corporate housing. She is assisted by Kelly Walker, who joined the company at the first of the year as customer service representative. Walker's background was also in customer service for 7 years with Safelite Auto Glass. They can be contacted at [email protected] or 225-752-1160.
Additionally, Mark Modenbach joined the company in February as Plant Manager. He spent 13 years in the paper industry with Georgia Pacific. Modenbach brings with him a background in chemical engineering and over nine years of experience in the paper converting industry. He has extensive knowledge in reliable manufacturing which will be used to meet the demands of Pod Pack's growing market place. Modenbach can be reached at [email protected] or 225-752-1110.