10 1 5 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 9 



Sales Managers of the Northwest Fruit Shipping Concerns 





MR. W. V. C'AVIX, vice-president and 

 general manager of thie Nortii- 

 western Fruit Exchange, was born in 

 Baltimore, August 16, 1880, being now 

 nearly 35 years of age. Mr. Gwin dur- 

 ing his boyhood school days attended 

 the public schools in the City of Balti- 

 more, afterwards attending the Balti- 

 more City College. Mr. Gwin began 

 his business career with The H-0 Com- 

 pany, the big cereal mills of Buffalo, 

 New York, made famous by originating 

 and introducing the breakfast food 

 known as "Force," of which the famous 

 "Sunny Jim" campaign was the leading 

 advertising feature. Mr. Gwin was 

 with this company during the cam- 

 paign and continued with them for 

 seven years, starting in as sub-sales- 

 man, later working up to the position 

 of territorial sales-manager. Later 

 upon the invitation of Arbuckle Bros., 

 the celebrated Arbuckle coffeee manu- 

 facturers of New York, he entered 

 their employ, organizing a field sales 

 force. In his comment upon his expe- 

 rience in connection with Arbuckle 

 Bros., he presents some serious thought 

 for the fruitgrowers, which is so well 

 expressed in his own words that il 

 seems wise to quote: 



"When you and I were boys and for 

 many years prior to that Arbuckle's 

 Ariosa Coffee was an article of almost 

 universal consumption in every part of 

 the United States. It was sold alike in 

 mining camps and fashionable gro- 

 ceries in the large population centers. 

 It was the most extensively advertised 

 conmiodity on the domestic market. 

 Millions had been spent to advertise it. 

 It became an article of such universal 

 sale that it was naturally adaptable as 

 a trade leader. Grocers began to cut 

 the price in order to attract customers 

 to their stores, hoping to sell them 



other articles at the same time. Finally 

 it became customary to sell the article 

 at cost. After a good man> years of 

 this sort of thing the grocers began to 

 make determined efforts to root the 

 article out of their trade. Xo etTort 

 was made by the manufacturers to 



\v. V. (IWIN 

 Vice Presidcnl and Ci-ni'ial Manager of North- 

 western Fruit ExelianKe, witli headquarters in 

 the Stuart UuildinK, Seattle, Wasliington. 



H. M. GILBEli I 

 President and Manager of the Richey & Gilbert 

 Company, North Yakima and Toppenish, Wash- 

 ington, which is now in combination with the 

 Yakima Horticultural Union and the Yakima 

 Fruit Growers' Exchange in the selling forces 

 under the head of the Yakima Fruit Sellers, 

 with Mr. Gilbert as general manager. 



overcome this condition and conse- 

 quently at last the sales began to 

 diminish and in large sections of the 

 country almost entirely vanished. My 

 job was to put the article back into the 

 trade on a plan which took cognizance 

 of the situation and was designed to 

 protect the dealers who handled the 

 brand. The State of Iowa was selected 

 for the test because that territory was 

 absolutely as near zero from a sales 

 standpoint as anywhere in the country. 

 It was the hardest sales proposition I 

 ever tackled. I had a pretty free rein 

 and eventually bought (?ight horses and 

 had Studebaker build special wagons 

 and put a crew of salesmen with a 

 stock of coft'ee on the wagons and cov- 

 ered every store, crossroads and all, in 

 the Stale of Iowa. We put the brand 

 back into 7,5 per cent of the stores of 

 the state and extended the campaign 

 into other slates." 



Mr. Gwin's introduction into selling 

 green perishables was in 11)07 when he 

 entered the employ of the California 

 Vegetable Union. While in tlieir em- 

 jiloy he was invited by Crulchlield >^ 

 Woolfolk of Pittsburg, one of llie 

 largest iJiodiice houses in Ihe United 

 Stales, to assume the position of sales- 

 manager for their carlot distributing 

 business, which included a wide vaii- 

 ety of fruits and vegetables originating 

 in all i)arts of the country and appioxi- 



mating a total of 5,000 cars annually. 

 \Miile associated with this firm Mr. 

 Gwin took his first trip to the North- 

 west and states he became much in- 

 terested in this country. While in the 

 Northwest he organized the Kenmar 

 Orchard Company, of which he is sec- 

 retary and treasurer, which owns 

 eighty acres of orchard property in 

 Southern Oregon near Medford. He 

 finally decided to cast fortunes with 

 the Noithweslern Fruit Exchange, com- 

 ing out in 11)10, being instrumental, to- 

 gether with a number of prominent 

 orchardists, in organizing the North- 

 western Fruit Exchange, of which he 

 was elected manager, which position he 

 still continues to hold. Mr. Gwin draws 

 a conclusion in connection with the 

 Arbuckle story already related which 

 is well worth repeating to the fruit- 

 growers for their consideration: 



"That whereas fruitgrowers out here 

 are tremeondously exercised over the 

 condition that undoubtedly exists, viz., 

 of exorbitant profits being exacted by 

 retailers, they should remember that 

 they themselves are resi)onsible for 

 the organization of the industry in all 

 of its relations, and that these condi- 

 tions will never be satisfactory until 

 they themselves study the cau.ses and 

 seek to remove them. They can be 

 removed not by any arbitrary dicta- 

 tion, but only through intelligent co- 

 operation with the trade. They must 

 approach the whole question in a spirit 

 of sympathy and fairness. Arbuckle's 

 Ariosa went down to defeat because 

 the dealers did not get profit enough, 

 an exactly opposite cause, you see, to 

 the fruitgrowers' complaint, and yet 

 both extremes converge to the same 

 issue. In other words, it is just as dan- 

 gerous to the producer for tlie trade to 



Fm:i) i:nEni.E 



Sales Manager for the Horlicultnral liiioii. now 



cond)ined in selling f(uees Willi Ihe Yakima 



Fruit Sellers. North Yakima. Washiiiglon, of 



which Mr. Eberle is assistant inanagir. 



