A Beverage Legacy
By: Julia A Koch
I am the seventh generation in the beverage business and would like to share our companies' history with you. It is a story about dreaming, building, growing and changing. It covers 150 years of Beverage history. It is the story of the Koch Beverage Company.
My, Great, Great, Great Grandfather Karl Kolter and his son Charles began our beverage legacy. Charles Kolter came to America from Wallhalben, Germany in 1850. Karl Kolter dreamed of a better life in America, and that is what his son Charles found. Karl and Charles Kolter started a Brewery in Wapakoneta Ohio. He began the legacy of a total beverage company. He bottled beer, artesian water, soft drinks, and made ice. His business flourished and he handed it down to his son in law Henry Koch.
The 1920's were a time of change for the Koch Beverage Company. Prohibition was supposed to stop us from making or selling beer. Officially we made what is known a "near beer". However, family rumor has it that the old beer wagons still ran at night. During this time period started we began looking harder at the soft drink industry.
My great grandmother, Julia May Doolitle became the one of the first Women to run a brewery in 1934. She was also the president of our first Pepsi plant in Wapakoneta Ohio. My grandfather and eventually my father ran the plant. These changes were the building blocks of our beverage company.
The 1960's were a fun time to be a Pepsi bottler. In 1967, we moved the Pepsi Plant 20 miles away to Lima Ohio .Our plant opening was attend by the movie star Joan Crawford. She was wife of the president of national Pepsi. In the 1960's we released such novelty beverages as Kikapoo Joy Juice, and Wapakoneta Moon Sauce. Kikapoo Joy Juice was a lot like Mt. Dew and Wapakoneta Moon Sauce commemorated the Apollo 11 landing on the moon. We also had a lot of fun bottling our own flavors in the 1960's
The fun and freedom of the 1960's led to expansion of the Koch Beverage Empire in the 1970's. In 1972 my father, Karl Koch, bought the Corpus Christi Pepsi Franchise. We turned into Summer Texas and began spending our summers in Corpus Christi. My father ran two very successful plants. Then in January 1980 we sold the Ohio Plant and moved to Texas full time. The Koch Beverage Company survived its first major move.
We began to bottle Mt. Dew during the 1970's. At the time we had no idea that it would eventually become the #1 selling soft drink in the United States. All we knew is that the kids loved it.
The 1980's were our time to get noticed. We became the first franchise to have the Pepsi Challenge, kicking off of one of Pepsi's most successful advertising programs.
In the early 1980's my father had the foresight to see that bottled water was going to become very popular. I guess no one told my dad that the American economy was in recession and that Texas was in the middle of a drought. We began Everest Premium Water in 1985. The great artist John McClusky designed our first label. This drink became the prototype for Pepsi's Aquafina water. We added a coffee service to the Everest Label in 1988.
In 1988 we got some national recognition . It happened after Madonna did a very edgy new commercial for Pepsi. Word got out before it ran and the Local Catholic Bishop called a boycott of Pepsi. My father went on TV and said the commercial was obnoxious and that he would not run it. This sound clip made it all the way to MTV.
The 1990's brought growth and expansion. The seventh generation began working at the plant. We expanded from a beverage company to a vending company as well. In 1993 we bought Sunrise Vending. We also expand water and vending into the Rio Grande Valley, and Laredo.
Nationally, Pepsi Cola also courted Generation X with the launch of Pepsi World. Then in 1998 Pepsi Cola turned 100 years old.
The Year 2000 brought us more publicity when a thief broke into the Coke plant and stole a truck then broke into our plant and stole some Pepsi. This funny story ran on newscasts all over the country.
The next century promises to be as full of success as the last one. The year 2000 marked our 150th year in the beverage industry. We have survived hurricanes, droughts, prohibition and the great depression. We have grown beyond anything that my Great, Great, Great, Great Grandfather could have ever dreamed. We will continue to grow, continue to build, continue to change and continue to dream so that the eighth generation has a chance to experience the beverage industry.
