Birmingham Chero-Cola Bottling Co.
The Birmingham Chero-Cola Bottling Co. was a bottler of soft drinks located in Birmingham.
Chero-Cola was invented by Claud Hatcher of Cussetta, Georgia as a competitor to Coca-Cola to be bottled and sold in his family's grocery store. He set up the Union Bottling Works in the basement of the store and debuted a "Royal Crown Ginger Ale", which was soon joined by strawberry and root beer flavors. His cherry-flavored soda debuted in 1907 and the company began going by the name Chero-Cola in 1910. He incorporated under that name in 1912.
The Birmingham Chero-Cola Bottling Co. opened in the mid 1910s, under the supervision of Hatcher's younger brother, Walter. It was located on Block 192 at 2401 6th Avenue South (then called Avenue F). In 1916 the company hired "Dare-Devil Derrill" to balance in a chair on the edge of the 27-story Jefferson County Bank Building as a publicity stunt.
By 1924 the bottler also produced and distributed Johanknecht's Ginger Ale (popularly known as "Joe's") and Grape Melo soda.
Later that year, the Chero-Cola Company introduced a line of fruit-flavored sodas under the Nehi brand name, suggesting that the distinctively tall bottles were "knee high". The company was renamed for its successful new line in 1925. The Birmingham plant was renamed the Birmingham Nehi Bottling Co. by 1930 and continued to operate to 1953 from the same location. The site was redeveloped by Birmingham Trust National Bank as its Southside office branch in 1955.
The Nehi bottling plant relocated to 225 Center Street North by 1958.
In 1934, after Hatcher's death, chemist Rufus Kamm reformulated the Chero-Cola product to be more similar to Coca-Cola, and it was marketed as Royal Crown Cola, or RC Cola for short. The Nehi Corporation was renamed the Royal Crown Company in 1951, and introduced several innovations to the soft drink industry, including cans in 1954, and a diet version of its cola in 1962.
Royal Crown Company was acquired by Triarc Companies of Atlanta, Georgia in 1993. Triarc sold its beverage division to Cadbury Schweppes in 2000. They sold off the manufacturing and distribution outside the United States to Cott Beverages Ltd. of Montreal, Canada. The US distributorship was spun off as the "Dr Pepper Snapple Group" in 2008. Ten years later, DPSG was sold to the Keurig Green Mountain for $18.7 billion to form Keurig Dr Pepper. The company is publicly traded, but 3/4 of shares are controlled by the JAB Holding Company of Luxembourg.
External links
- Walter King Hatcher Chero-Cola Collection at Columbus State University Archives