Charles G. Guth and Pepsi Cola Company

In 1902 Caleb Bradham incorporated the Pepsi-Cola Company and started a manufacturing operation.

The company was certified bankrupt on 1923. It wasn't until a successful candy manufacturer, Charles G. Guth, appeared on the scene that the future of Pepsi-Cola was assured.

Guth was president of Loft Incorporated, a large chain of candy stores and soda fountains along the eastern seaboard. At the time Charles Guth became Loft’ president, Guth and his family owned Grace Company, which made syrups for soft drinks in a plant in Baltimore, Maryland. Coca-Cola Company supplied Loft with cola syrup.

Loft operated over 130 soda fountains in the greater New York area. Guth believed that with that kind of volume, Loft deserved better pricing. Coca-Cola believed that Guth had no choice but to buy their syrup, and refused to offer any discount.

He saw Pepsi-Cola as an opportunity to discontinue an unsatisfactory business relationship with the Coca-Cola Company, and at the same time to add an attractive drawing card to Loft's soda fountains.

Guth entered into an agreement with Roy Megargel to acquire the trademark of Pepsi and its formula and form Pepsi-Cola Corporation.

With just handful of bottles in 1934, the number grew to 315 Pepsi-Cola bottlers in 1939.

He later was sued by his partner and claimed that Guth had misused corporate assets and that his Pepsi stock should be handed over to Loft.

Loft filed a suit in a Delaware state court against Guth, Grace and Pepsi, seeking their Pepsi stock and accounting. After nearly three years of legal procedures, the court ruled that Guth, Pepsi-Cola holding belonged to Loft. Loft became a Loft subsidiary and Walter Mack was chosen to be Pepsi’s new President and Guth continuing as general manager.

After five owners and 15 unprofitable years, Pepsi-Cola was once again a thriving national brand.
Charles G. Guth and Pepsi Cola Company

History of Tri-City Beverage

Tri-City Beverage was founded in 1946 by Charles O. Gordon, Sr. Charles Gordon graduated from Virginia Tech in Engineering in 1942.

He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in Artillery before transferred to Air Corps as a Glider Pilot in June 1942.

Dr. Enuf formula was developed by Bill Schwartz, a Chicago chemist after hearing his co-workers complain of lethargy.

Charles Gordon after military service ad in Bottler’s Gazette magazine and bought the right to the formula. 

When it first came out, Dr. Enuf sold for twenty-five cents while other soft drinks were going for a nickel.

In 1954 Tri-City Beverage acquiring the Frostie Root Beer franchise and later appear to be bottling Nesbit Orange soda.

The company also developed Mountain Dew soft drink. Bill Bridgforth of Tri-City was instrumental in creating its final formula in 1958.

Dr. Enuf is still produced by Tri-City Beverage
History of Tri-City Beverage

Business history of Hires root beer

Root beer has been a common beverage in America since at least the eighteenth century. In 1875, Philadelphia pharmacist, Charles E. Hires began to experiment his new formula and finally produce Hires’ Root beer Household Extract, to be used for making root beer at home.

He sold it from a booth at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876 and he introduced it to drug store fountains.

At first packages of the dried roots, bark, and herbs were sold, and from 1893, both bottled beverage and in three-ounce bottles as a brewing extract.

The initial response to Hires Root Beer was so enthusiastic that Hires soon began nationwide distribution.

In 1890, the Charles E. Hires Company was incorporated for the large-scale manufacture and sale of Hires’ root beer, cough syrup and vegetable extracts and compounds.

Over the next few years, extensive advertising played a crucial role in the company’s expansion. For example, in a three month period in 1893, Hires spent more than $200,000 on newspaper ads, signs, trade cards, posters and other form of advertising.

Hires’s root beer, being nonalcoholic, was promoted as a health beverage. Advertising for the new product encouraged coal miners to switch from hard drinks to his root beer, which was advertised as ‘the National Temperance’ drink and ‘the Greatest Health Giving Beverage in the World’.

In 1962 Crush International bought Charles E. Hires Co. In 1980 Crush International, together with Hires Root Beer was sold to Procter and Gamble, who later sold it in 1989 to Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages, a subsidiary division of Cadbury Schweppes.
Business history of Hires root beer