U Magazine, Winter 1987

Sipping the sweet • wine of success

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Chris Hawkins

Judy Newton

By John L. Nunes

D o you know the one about the exploding bota bag and the banker? There's this Rancho Santa Fe banker who loaned a bundle to a pair of enterpris– ing University of San Diego law school alums for their invention: Boda-Pac, a disposable, self-sealing, foil bota bag containing an individual serving of Northern California wine. After the entrepreneurs produced a few test wine bags, the alums , using good business sense. sent the banker a com– plimentary bag. Before the unsuspecting banker even had a chance to partake of a squirt or two of the grape, the bag exploded - all over his rather expensive office desk. "We offered to pay to refinish the desk ," says San Francisco attorney Chris Hawkins '74, '78 (L). the USD alum who came up with the idea of disposable botas. Thanks to some production adjust– ments, Boda-Pacs no longer burst, Hawkins is happy to report. The wine venture is a family affair. Hawkins, Judy Newton '78 (L). his wife and law partner, andJ . P. Hawkins '72, his brother, are the principals in Boda-Pac. Boda-Pac, packaged in Chicago and distributed from a plant in Carlsbad, was on the retail market in some 15 states for about the first six months in 1986. In its first six weeks. Boda-Pac moved to 30th place in sales among California's 200-plus wineries, according to April press reports. Abag retailed between 79 and 89 cents.

Chris says he got the idea for developing the Boda-Pac while on a skiing trip some five yea rs ago. When on the slopes, Chris likes a sip or two ofwine to keep warm. But on this particular trip he'd forgotten to bring along his bota bag. Realizing bottles and cans were imprac– tical for someone on the move, the idea for Boda-Pac was born. The self-sealing feature of Boda-Pac was not in the original plan. But the Haw– kinses were made aware of the new technology by a beverage container salesman long after their enterprise was taking shape. Being adept at the legal end of business ventures, they quickly purchased the rights to the self-sealing technology in January 1985, only one year before their product hit the market. Drinking from a Boda-Pac is simple : tear off the foil corner, lift and squeeze. In 1987, Boda-Pac is expected to reach $25 million in sales, according to J . P. Hawkins, the company's vice president and chief executive officer. He made the bullish forecast in an article published in an August issue of the San Diego Tribune. Chris and Judy are not as optimis tic, but they don't expect the bold venture to blow up in their faces . They were forced to close the plant in August and halt sales until new investment money can be injected into the business, Judy explains. If the grape deal sours, however , the couple has other ideas. Chris, in particu– lar , is an entrepreneur at heart. While attending USD, Chris, considered

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