The recent $13.1-million acquisition of some assets of Omnifrio Beverage Co. is being positioned by Primo Water as potentially transformative because it allows Primo to offer "hydration stations" that can provide a range of carbonated beverages in single portions, as well as purified water. Castaneda says the company thinks of it as "Keurig for cold," comparing the carbonated-beverage delivery -- using an Omnifrido CO2 cannister in each water machine -- with the wildly successful single-cup Keurig coffee service.

The prospects for rapid growth remind Castaneda of his days at Blue Rhino. "It was an environment where there was a lot of risk, and a lot of uncertainty. I loved that environment," he says. "You were cutting a new path," and growing all the time.

But it hadn't always been that way in his career. After starting in public accounting, with Deloitte, he started in corporate finance by working with private energy companies, and there learned about different workplace models. At entrepreneurial companies "everybody I'd worked with was self-motivated," while in other places he found that "If the work was light, they just worked slower."

A lesson that he learned as a manager: "You've got to set people up for success." It's an approach he tries to take as the finance department expands at Primo Water, with Accounting Principals' help.

There's a sense in the finance department that the Omnifrido acquisition "opens a much bigger market," the CFO says. And more and more, among the employees being hired, it puts the emphasis on one of the eight Primo Water values in particular: innovation.