When Mario Gutierrez started delivering Pepsi products, the job started early. He got into the habit of arriving at work around 5 a.m. each weekday at the Pepsi Bottling facility off the Palmetto Expressway in Doral.

Almost 50 years later, the 69-year-old maintains virtually the same routine -- and says he'll retire the day he feels he can't do his job well anymore.

Gutierrez has done everything for Pepsi, starting as a driver and salesman and working up to supervising a 30-member sales team. In the 1970s, the company appointed him Latin Affairs Manager, where he developed the strategy of bringing Pepsi products to local festivals like Calle Ocho.

Gutierrez, who can reel off names of old grocery stores in Miami like Pantry Pride, was responsible for Pepsi's accounts with such chains as Publix, Sedano's and Winn-Dixie.

Some things have changed -- Gutierrez drinks Pepsi's bottled water products rather than soda, for example.

But he still spends most of his day on the road driving, by his estimate, 100 miles a day.

``I still think our business is outside, with the customer -- that's the way to make relations,'' explains Gutierrez, who sports a gold ring encrusted with five diamonds -- a gift from Pepsi to reward six years of selling 50,000 cases of beverages a year.

Gutierrez came to Miami in 1961, just after he had finished college in Cuba, where he studied accounting.

He worked in hotels and at a laundry until he got his break -- a job as a driver with Southern Beverage Co.

Back then, drivers were also salesmen. Gutierrez credits his attitude, hard work and 12-hour days for why he made $300 a week back then.

He was hired away by General Cinema Corp., which owned the local Pepsi bottling plant in Miami, on Feb. 25, 1969.

``I like people,'' he said, citing management tips he picked up from a Pepsi workshop years ago that stressed good managers always highlight the positive before criticizing anyone. ``There are good and bad things, but I don't see the bad things.''

When asked if he's ever had a bad day, week or month at work, Gutierrez smiles broadly.

``Remember what I told you about being positive? That's so important to recognize.''

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