Blue Ridge

Blue Ridge was founded in Virginia in 1959, and quickly established a reputation for quality fast managers, who had been accustomed to high margins and short lead times in their alcoholic beverages division, did not have the patience for the long and difficult road to develop these markets and would tolerate only those ventures that showed quick results.

These early years of international expansion provided important learning opportunities as more managers gained a personal understanding of the key strategic factors behind successful foreign entry. The success of the company's international expansion efforts helped Blue Ridge become the company's fastest growing division. When Blue Ridge was sold to Delta Foods in 1996 for US$2 billion, it was one of the largest fast-food chains in the world and

generated sales of US$6.8 billion.

Delta was a leading soft drink and snack food company in the United States, but at the time of the Blue Ridge acquisition, it had not achieved significant success internationally. It had managed to establish a dominant market share in a small number of