Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company

PEPSI-COLA / RICES BOTTLING COMPANY

On September 4, 1937 Samuel B. and Adelia G. Tarver, owners of the Quality Orange Kist Company, purchased a plot of land at the corner of West Market Street and Knox Creek Road in order to build a new bottling plant.(3) Pepsi-Cola a brand they had started bottling around 1936 was doing so well that their existing plant on Boone Street wasn’t big enough to handle their growing business. They moved into their new plant at 840 West Market Street in February 1938 changing their name to the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company.(2) They continue to bottle Pepsi-Cola along with Hires Root Beer, and their own Traver's Beverages flavor line.

The Tarvers sell the bottling company to Frank A. Dial on August 31, 1945. The Pepsi-Cola Bottling Corporation is incorporated on January 2, 1947 (3) with Frank A. Dial as President, Mary O. Dial as Vice President, and Paul W. McAlister as Secretary-Treasurer.(1) They pick up the franchise for B-1, a lithiated lemon soda from St. Louis Missouri, in 1947. August 26, 1948 the company purchases land on which to build an expansion to the plant.(3) Frank A. Dial sells the bottling company to Lawrence L. Rice, a bottler from Roanoke, VA who has been operating a Grapette franchise in downtown Johnson City since 1941, on December 30, 1949.(3) Rice obviously combined his original bottling plant with the Pepsi-Cola Bottling plant and would be bottling Pepsi-Cola along with Grapette, and possibly Grapette's flavor line Botl-O. On May 18, 1955 the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company was incorporated as Rice Bottling Company.(3)

In September 1964 the Pepsi-Cola parent company purchased a small franchising company out of Marion, VA called the Tip Corporation to acquire its runaway hit soda Mountain Dew after the production requirements of bottler base out stripped the ability for the small company’s ability to keep up. The brand was an overnight success growing from seventeen bottlers in 1964 to over three hundred and ninety in 1965. Unfortunately Rice Bottling Company was not one of them due to Tri-City Beverage already owning the franchise for the brand in their area. This changed in February 1966 when Tri-City sold the franchise for Mountain Dew to Rice Bottling Company who immediately put it into production on March first of the same year.(2)

In anticipation of the accusation the company was starting on another expansion in order to handle Mountain Dew along with Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, and Teem.(2) It would appear that expansion wouldn't be enough to handle the current and future needs of the company so on December 7, 1966 they purchase land on East Lakeview Drive for a new plant.(3) This might have been prompted by knowledge that they would be purchasing the Seven-Up Bottling Company of Johnson City in April 1967, thus acquiring the Seven-Up franchise for the area.(2)

The new plant on East Lakeview Drives celebrates its grand opening on Saturday April 26, 1969 with Joan Crawford, who at the time was Chairman of the Board at Pepsi-Cola, in attendance.(2) The Dr Pepper Company of Johnson City was sold to the Royal Crown Cola Bottling Company in December 1968.(2) Royal Crown builds a new plant which can not only produce soda in bottles but cans as well; however, something must have not gone well as Rice Bottling Company is able to acquire the Dr Pepper franchise from the parent company on in July 1972, but doesn’t announce they are bottling it until October of the same year.(2) The company still exists today as a branch plant of PepsiCo; however, I'm not completely sure if it is still bottling.