The firm originally distributed beer along with soft drink sales. Smith had the insight in 1911 to contract with the best-selling, fastest-growing non-alcoholic beverage company in the United States – Coca-Cola. The contract gave Magnolia Bottling Co. “the right to bottle and sell bottled Coca-Cola in all of El Paso County, Texas.”
By doing so, he established himself permanently in El Paso and became an important business and civic leader of the city. Although Coca-Cola has been the best-selling soft drink in the United States for many years, it was unknown in Western Texas and Southern New Mexico in the early twentieth century.
Coca-Cola eventually became the firm’s top seller, and, to reflect the popularity of the drink, Smith renamed the firm Magnolia Coca-Cola Bottling Co. in 1916.
Magnolia Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Inc. was incorporated in 1932. The Company line of business includes the manufacturing of soft drinks and carbonated waters.
During the Great Depression, Magnolia Coca-Cola Company, boasting the best soft drink sales in El Paso, was hit most lightly but still decreased in sales volume by 31.7%.
By 1953, Magnolia served El Paso, Hudspeth, and Culberson Counties in Texas along with Otero and Lincoln Counties in New Mexico.
Magnolia Coca-Cola Company was now big business; Hope Smith’s heirs had sold it to a Dallas firm in 1977, and it had changed hands three more times by 1995.
Magnolia Bottling Company
