www.directsellingnews.com/archive/2006June/archive0606i -
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Published on: 1/1/2006
Last Visited: 3/23/2007
Much of the credit for both Wildtree's host plan and its compensation plan goes to its new CEO, Alan Luce.He helped design what the Wildtree business would look like while still a consultant for the company.When Alan first met Leslie Montie, he was impressed by both the company's mission and its products."Here is a woman, who because of her own life experience, felt compelled to start a company that might be right in front of a coming wave of marketplace demand," he says, pointing to the recent surge in interest in organic and natural foods evidenced by the success of the Whole Foods stores, the country's fastest-growing food chain.
In addition to knowing a good business opportunity when he sees one, Alan shares with the Monties a personal stake in healthy eating."When I first got involved with the Montie family a as consultant in 2002, there were two things that struck me about Wildtree: one, I had become very sensitized to the growing-almost epidemic-food allergies in children because when my youngest granddaughter stopped nursing, we discovered she was allergic to just about everything," Alan says.
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"Second, I had had a heart attack not long before that," Alan continues."So I had my doctors pounding on me about staying away from things like cholesterol and being careful about too much fats-trans-fats in particular-and processed foods."
As a consultant and then a board member, Alan worked with Wildtree to make their compensation plan more competitive and to begin to grow their sales force.He also played a role bringing them together with the Southwestern Group, which purchased Wildtree in 2004.It was a partnership that grew out of Alan's 30-year professional relationship with Jerry Heffel, The Southwestern Group's CEO.
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"Jerry Heffel and Bob Sircy of Southwestern had approached me as a consultant to advise them about their interest in buying or starting a promising party plan company," explains Alan.
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According to Alan Luce, "We launched a major campaign to improve services to the reps and customers, to improve our company image and packaging, and to take a much more aggressive approach to spreading the news about the Wildtree products and mission.Consumers are very concerned about how the things they eat impact their health.They want better, easier, more trustworthy choices.Wildtree products meet that need. and they are delicious too!"
There's another important characteristic that sets Wildtree apart from comparable direct sales companies, Luce adds."Only Wildtree manufactures all of its own blends and oil infusions; we completely control the food preparation environment.And because we manufacture all of our products with all-natural ingredients to our own specifications, our representatives can present with complete confidence, knowing that they are giving themselves and their customers a better choice."
And Alan believes that offering all-natural specialty foods through a party plan direct selling company is a natural fit."Can you think of anything that is more person-to-person than sharing recipes and sharing ideas?There is much more credibility in my neighbor telling me how much she enjoyed this wonderful scampi mix blend, or meat rub, or spaghetti sauce than in any advertisement that I could ever run," he says.
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