Doug Becker, branch manager, displays some of the promotional items that mark the plant's first century. (Gary Landers photos) | ZOOM |

        G.B. Overton and S.B. Tinsley would no doubt be amazed at what their small soft drink bottling business has become.

        In late 1901, the two Cincinnati men received just the fifth franchise to bottle and distribute Coca-Cola. It opened in a warehouse on Sycamore Street.

        Today, the business, which is marking its centennial with a series of events and promotions starting Friday on Fountain Square, is one of the largest and most modern within the Coca-Cola network, Doug Becker, branch manager, said.

        “We want to say "thank you' to our customers, because we wouldn't be here without them,” he said.
       

Everyone knows Coke

        The celebration is also a tribute to the bottling company's employees. More than 20 percent have worked for the franchise more than 20 years, including Mr. Becker.

        Working for an icon like Coca-Cola “is something that really gets in your blood,” he said. “You tell somebody you work for Cola-Cola, and they immediately tell you they either like it or they don't. It's such a part of Americana, everybody has a story about growing up with Coke.”

In a fast-moving, automated process, caffeine-free Coca-Cola is produced in Madisonville. | ZOOM |

        The Cincinnati bottling company, which started with a single horse-drawn wagon and a handful of employees, today employs 830, producing and distributing 50 million cases of soft drinks with a fleet of 250 vehicles through parts of eight states.
       

Marvel of machinery

        Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Ohio/Kentucky's 15-year-old plant in Madisonville is one of the most modern in the world, turning out 4,500 cans and bottles a minute.

        “This was the first vertical soft drink warehouse in the world. Instead of going out, they went up,” Mr. Becker said.

        The 13-story warehouse off Duck Creek Road holds up to 1.4 million cases of product fed by a fleet of 26 robotic vehicles, which carry pallets of bottles and cans from the plant's four filling lines.

This image from about 1940 shows Coca-Cola syrup in wooden casks at a plant on Dana Avenue | ZOOM |

        The pallets are stored randomly in the warehouse's 68 storage bays. Computer bar codes keep track of the product so the oldest items are removed first. The inventory is completely replaced, on average, every seven to 10 days, Mr. Becker said.

        As consumer tastes have changed, so has the local bottling company's product lineup. The Cincinnati franchise either bottles or distributes more than 250 different drinks and sizes, including Coke brands such as Minute Maid juices and soft drinks, Fruitopia fruit drinks, KMX energy drinks and Dasani bottled water.

        The local bottling company was owned for 66 years by the Mashburn family and later Cincinnati investors Mercer Reynolds and William DeWitt. Since 1986, it has been part of Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., the publicly traded Atlanta-based Coke bottler.

        “This is really a locally run business,” Mr. Becker said. “When you have 8,000 retailers in a market, you really can't handle that from Atlanta.”

        As part of Friday's celebration, the local bottling company will present its first $1,000 college scholarship to the Cincinnati Public Schools — which it plans to donate annually. Later this summer, the Cincinnati Museum Center will host an audiovisual exhibit on Coca-Cola's impact around the world; the company is distributing a special 8-ounce bottle with a Cincinnati logo designed by John Schmidt, a bottling company employee.
       

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