Chattanooga Coca-Cola Bottling Co. is marking 125 years in business, but its chief on Thursday talked about the entrepreneurial spirit of a pair of lawyers who had the vision of bottling the soft drink.
“Chattanooga and Coca-Cola go together,” said Darren Hodges, local division director for the company’s parent, Coca-Cola Bottling Co. United. “If not for these attorneys, where would we be?”
Hodges told the Rotary Club of Chattanooga that what began as a fountain drink became the most recognized brand in the world.
(READ MORE: How Coca-Cola was built to last in Chattanooga)
According to Coca-Cola history, the drink began in 1886 when Atlanta pharmacist Dr. John S. Pemberton created a flavored syrup. The drink originally could only be sold at soda fountains where soda water and the syrup were combined to create the unique Coke flavor that is still used today.
In the summer of 1899, Chattanooga businessmen Benjamin F. Thomas and Joseph B. Whitehead ventured to Atlanta to meet with Asa Candler, who had purchased the Coca-Cola Co. seven years earlier, and the pair pitched the idea of bottling Coke.
While Candler thought the idea was doomed, he agreed to give the bottling rights to the Chattanooga entrepreneurs for $1. With the support of colleague John T. Lupton, Thomas and Whitehead opened the world’s first Coca-Cola bottling company at 17 Market St. in downtown Chattanooga, where Patten Parkway now stands.
Today, the Chattanooga bottler produces 37 million cases annually, Hodges said. The company has two facilities in Chattanooga — on Amnicola Highway and West Shepherd Road, he said, employing about 550 people.
Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly said in an interview that Coke bottling is “a great story of entrepreneurship.”
“Chattanooga was the first place to put it in a bottle,” he said.
Chattanooga businessman Ted Alling, a member of the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. United board of directors, said Thursday in an interview the city still has that entrepreneurial presence.
(READ MORE: Alling named to Coca-Cola United board)
Alling, who has a long history of entrepreneurship as a co-founder of the former Access America logistics firm and his involvement in entities helping startups, cited the birth of the Tennessee Aquarium and downtown development as examples.
Hodges said growth at the company has slowed since the pandemic, when it was strong. He said he is still projecting volume growth over the next year, though the company is dealing with an increase in its expenses, like many other businesses.
While the Chattanooga company is 125 years old, Coca-Cola United was founded in 1902, making it 122 years old. Birmingham, Alabama-based Coca-Cola United bought the Chattanooga business in 1926.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.
