John Shearer: Talking Coca-Cola Bottling History With Gary Davis

For a number of years Gary Davis became closely connected with the local Coca-Cola bottling firm – which is part of Coca-Cola Bottling Co. UNITED -- as he helped market it and helped oversee some of the operations.

From the drink’s sponsorship of UTC athletics and events to the introduction of new Coke and the return of Classic Coca-Cola, he was a noticeable public local face of this drink that uniquely holds a more reverential spot in the city’s business history than many other products.

That, of course, is due to the fact that Chattanooga was the first formal bottler of the iconic soft drink in 1899, and many Chattanoogans who became connected with the bottling operation around the country became wealthy as a result.

As we continue with a second story in a series in connection with the 125th anniversary of the locally connected Coca-Cola bottling operations, Mr. Davis admitted that Coca-Cola was not his favorite drink growing up, and he was not related to any of the bottling families. As he jokingly recounted recently during an interview at a building his businessman son, Allan, operates near Central and Main streets and in some other correspondence, it was Pepsi. But it was simply a cost reason as much as a taste one.

"When and if I had a nickel in my pocket, my little boy angst made a decision of whether I would buy a large nickel pack of Topps baseball cards or a large fountain cup of Pepsi that used actual syrup and carbonated water mixed at the fountain at Brainerd Drug Store,” he recalled. “A fountain Coke at that time cost more for the same size cup. That big cup of Pepsi beat out that little bottle of Coke every day of the week in those days.”

But his perspective of the two drinks would soon change due to an employment opportunity. His father and uncle operated a lumber/hardware store, Davis Bros. Lumber, on Rossville Boulevard, and he had worked for that business some. However, his family attended what is now First-Centenary United Methodist Church, and his father knew fellow church member Bill Price, who worked for the local Coca-Cola bottling firm.

As a result, the 1969 McCallie School graduate was able to get a summertime job after his freshman year at Furman University moving soft drink coolers from a facility off Broad Street across from where Amos & Andy Buick then was.

"That was in June 1970,” he said. “I still have my first paycheck.”

The next summer he was able to work in the local bottling company’s service department, and he remembers working at Billy Hull’s nightclub by Brainerd and Germantown roads and suddenly being confronted by Mr. Hull’s chimpanzee. It was quite a scare, but he was enjoying his work.

In his third summer of 1972, he continued his work with the iconic local company, although the surprises came in seeing different parts of Chattanooga. He ran a drink route stocking machines at such places as UTC, BellSouth, Provident Life (now Unum), the Standard-Coosa-Thatcher mill near Main Street and Dodds Avenue, and the old Hamilton County Jail that has since been razed.

“I got to see places I had never seen in my life,” he said, remembering he had to give a special oral code to get through the layers of security at the jail.

But he had already gotten in at the Coca-Cola company and he was luckily able to continue working there after graduating from Furman in 1973, but in work more gratifying than the grunt work he had done over the previous three summers.

Former Chattanooga “City” High graduate Bob Lovell, who had played basketball for future Georgia coach Hugh Durham at Florida State while Mr. Durham was an assistant, had been brought in as the local bottling company’s marketing person. As a result, Mr. Davis was hired to assist him.

“I could not have found a better person to work for,” he said. “He and I became very close. He taught me to appreciate the heritage, history and tradition of Coca-Cola.”

While that might have been interesting work on its own and a plum assignment for someone in Chattanooga right out of college, it was also at a time when the local bottling company was getting ready to celebrate its 75th anniversary in 1974.

Mr. Davis remembers going down to the Coca-Cola headquarters and meeting with archivist Wilbur Kurtz Jr. and being welcomed by Coke officials as they celebrated the anniversary.

“We had the run of the building,” Mr. Davis said. “Mr. Kurtz showed us the archival materials and they approved the release of this to be shipped to Chattanooga.”

He said some of the artwork and memorabilia was displayed at the American National Bank (now Truist) building and the Miller Bros. department store downtown. And through the competitive Mr. Lovell’s efforts, the Coca-Cola company also officially referred to Chattanooga as the world’s first bottler, even though the Biedenharn family of Mississippi earlier had a looser bottling agreement for convenience for their immediate area.

An aspect of that 75th anniversary celebration that many still remember is that some commemorative Coca-Cola bottles were sold recognizing that milestone. In fact, so many were sold that many Chattanoogans in their 60s and older still have one or two of them, and the bottles can still often be found at area antique booths and yard sales.

While the anniversary was a time of enjoyment for many Chattanoogans, for Mr. Davis as a young employee, it was also a time of work and reflection and realization of what the drink meant for the local bottling company and even the city.

“Understanding the brand and the history and how the bottling operation worked, the whole thing was invaluable to me,” he said. “Bob (Lovell) made that an important part of who we were.”

This institutional knowledge would help him about 10 years later when two memorable incidents happened that brought worldwide attention to the company. That was when New Coke was introduced and then the classic brand was brought back a few weeks later amid protests and dropping sales.

But first, Mr. Davis was transferred to Augusta, Ga., where he worked from 1975-83 and found a much more competitive market against Pepsi than in Chattanooga at the time. “That was the hardest eight years because the Augusta market was competitive,” he said. “I learned the business. I learned to compete, but I was delighted to get back to Chattanooga.”

During his time in Augusta, Diet Coke had been introduced to popular reviews, even though the company already had Tab on the market. But Pepsi was starting to market itself aggressively with the Pepsi Challenge taste test commercials showing people preferring Pepsi over Coke.

Mr. Davis said the bottlers had been asking the corporate Coca-Cola offices to counter their advertising in some ways or promote Coke better, and they thought the response was somewhat muted. However, amid all that, the company had quietly begun trying a new flavor for Coke using something connected to the Diet Coke flavoring. And blind taste tests showed people preferred it over the original Coke.

While the reasoning might have been good, the method caught everyone a little off guard and it turned out to be a disaster, with many people using the adage of “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.” Mr. Davis – who admitted this was one of the more brutal times in the soft drink industry -- has not forgotten how he learned of the change just hours before they were supposed to introduce the drink in April 1985.

“I literally got a memo to report to Atlanta for the initial announcement for New Coke,” he remembered. “I went down, and they had a huge celebration, and they said to me, ‘We are sending you back to Chattanooga and you had to be on the ground the next morning when the media started calling.’”

While being a good company man and trying to talk up the new Coke to the media, he remembered not feeling that great inwardly. “From my perspective, I said, ‘What are we doing?’” he recalled. “It eroded people’s loyalty to the brand.’”

Mr. Davis, who remembered logging all the calls they were getting from disappointed customers, said that sales continued to go down over the next few weeks.

“I tried to do damage control,” he said. “But it humbled the company quite a bit and it was an extremely difficult time for the bottlers. I was angry. I didn’t want to see the brand beat up.”

However, in July, the corporate officials decided to reverse course and reintroduce old Coke, now calling it Coca-Cola Classic for a period, while continuing to sell New Coke for a while as well.

While Mr. Davis as a professional employee tried to keep the same face through the change and return, inside he was admittedly as different as new Coke and old Coke were and was quite excited to hear the news of the return of the old flavor.

As a result, he felt the competitive juices flowing, and the old lessons Mr. Lovell taught him about brand pride came roaring back. And since Chattanooga had been the first bottler, he wanted to be one of the first to reintroduce Coca-Cola Classic.

They hurriedly filled the new cans after they and the syrup arrived, and they had worked with Red Food Store, the most popular Chattanooga grocer at the time, to hurriedly get some loaded on a truck and out to the Highway 58 store to initially begin selling it. And yes, the media arrived as well in a big way, and this time Mr. Davis was literally fizzing with excitement praising the return of Classic Coca-Cola.

“The (NBC) ‘Today Show’ came down and (current Local 3 News co-anchor) Cindy Sexton was with us. She was brand new (to Chattanooga) and she stayed with me all day,” he said. He also remembered that some footage of him being interviewed at that time ended up on a well-known VH1 video about events in 1985, and a number of people would see him on it over the years.

Mr. Davis saw several other memorable changes in his career, including the diversification of the Coca-Cola products. He said the Chattanooga facility was one of the first to push and sell the Powerade sports drink designed to compete with Gatorade. He said UT-Chattanooga was also one of the first college athletic programs in the country to sign a contract to consume it and market it.

The larger UNITED company also purchased the Northwest Georgia bottling company owned by Jimmy Wardlaw and others, and that firm was also already selling Laurel Mountain spring water as bottled water was starting to hit the national market.

“We learned early that bottled water was getting to be popular,” he said.

The energy drink market has also caught on in recent years with Coca-Cola and other firms, and now regular Coca-Cola in the red cans is just a fraction of the sales figures after getting the company launched in its familiar green bottles.

Other drinks sold by Coca-Cola Bottling UNITED include Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Fanta (now just in orange), Sprite, Pibb, Dasani water, Smartwater, Barq’s root beer, Gold Peak tea, Minute Maid orange juice, and Monster and NOS energy drinks, among a number of others. The company also has an agreement to bottle and sell the separately owned Dr Pepper.

After starting off in sales and marketing, Mr. Davis during his career had moved more into administration before eventually retiring in 2013 as a divisional vice president of the company, which is now headed by CEO Mike Suco, a member of a first-generation family from Cuba.

“I did not want to end my career dealing with policy changes,” he said of his retirement in his early 60s. “But I left under great terms. I started in sales and marketing. I was not a natural salesman, but I am good at administration and marketing. I moved into administration. I loved developing people and developing teams.”

Mr. Davis – who is also heard as “Overlord” on Sport Talk 102.3 picking football games with friend and former UTC basketball coach Mack McCarthy – said by then his career had stretched back 40 years after he began working at Coca-Cola as a fulltime professional employee on June 11, 1973. He then worked “until I could find something better do,” he jokingly said.

But he said it was quite an experience, and he has even written out a memoir of all his experiences, and his son for fun tried to put it into a podcast using artificial intelligence.

And so has the city of Chattanooga had quite an experience with Coca-Cola. While the connection of many Chattanooga families to Coca-Cola bottling ownership rights made them financially successful, everyday Chattanoogans over the years have also enjoyed pride as well regarding the success of the drink through the bottling rights concept developed here.

That has been true not just by the drink’s prominent placement in stores everywhere, but also by a look at the several large homes in Riverview and one or two other places built in or lived in by early bottling families.

And Mr. Davis for several decades felt like he had a front row seat for the continuation of all this history. He certainly realized, particularly when New Coke was introduced before old Coke was brought back, that the drink has had a unique role in the city’s history.

“We learned the brand had a place in people’s hearts,” he said.

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Other tidbits of Coke history

Mr. Davis also emailed some historical information about the history of Coca-Cola and its early connection to Chattanooga. Here are his memories in his own words, with slight editing for clarity. The first deals with how the drink got started:

“The development of the bottling enterprises for the Chattanooga parties benefited not so much directly from (Benjamin) Thomas as it did (Joseph) Whitehead (both original bottlers in Chattanooga, who started the formal bottling agreement around the country).

“Whitehead died soon after and was in poor health during those early developmental years. Apparently, Thomas requested the opportunity to divide the bottling rights so that Thomas could manage his share more effectively/independently. As a result, Whitehead chose the less populated Southern/ Southwest areas of the United States that offered warmer weather, allowing Thomas to acquire the remaining more populated areas (to include Chattanooga/ Thomas Company) excluding that portion of Mississippi, which belonged to the Biedenharn family.

“Whitehead in turn was never a good businessman and lacked the apparent ability/financial resources to properly capture/understand the opportunity he owned. In turn this prompted him to seek investors within his geographic portion of the U.S., where Chattanooga families such as the Luptons, Navarres, Harrisons, Johnstons, and Poindexters to name a few became involved.

“This allowed those families in turn to seek their own investors as each began to scour the states of Georgia, Alabama and Midwest as they began to develop bottling rights within the towns and cities such as Birmingham, Mobile, Savannah, and Miami to name a few.

“Every small town and community seemed to become a gold mine for its own bottling rights.”

He also said that the Thomas company operation was unique in that for years it simply got a commission on part of the sales of syrup to the bottling companies in its territories.

Also, when Mr. Davis became involved with the local company, he said that a lot of bottlers he met were two or three generations removed from their ancestors who had been the original investors.

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Here is what Mr. Davis said regarding the issue of Chattanooga having the first bottling rights and agreement to bottle and sell Coca-Cola around the country, although the Joseph Biedenharn family had a looser agreement to bottle in the Vicksburg, Ms., area beforehand:

“I am aware that this (‘franchised’) moniker was loosely used when I first joined. However, (Bob) Lovell insisted that Chattanooga's attempt to celebrate this initial and historic 75th anniversary event could not properly exist unless Chattanooga was in fact identified as ‘the FIRST bottler’ of Coca-Cola in the world.

“Actually, you would have to know the competitive character of Lovell to appreciate this part of the story. In short, Lovell's effort was rewarded when the Coca-Cola Co. ‘officially’ recognized Chattanooga as the ‘World's FIRST’ bottler. It was not necessary to differentiate between that and the term, franchise.

“Obviously, this claim would have gone unnoticed by the general public, but for Chattanooga it was a rather significant declaration. Chattanooga has never doubted the fact that Biedenharn bottled Coca-Cola in some form for distribution with its confectionary products.”

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Concerning one old newspaper article that talks about the Crawford Johnson family initially leasing the Chattanooga bottling company before taking it over and building it into the large Coca-Cola United firm, here is what Mr. Davis said regarding his knowledge of the founding:

“I am simply not aware of this part of the agreement between the two families of Johnson and (Summerfield) Johnston (that it was leased). While Crawford Johnson originally resided on Lookout Mountain, I understand he moved to Birmingham when he invested in the Birmingham bottling operation.

“The Chattanooga operation was initially owned by the Johnston family and eventually sold outright during the second generation of ownership between the two families. This would explain why the Johnston family owned and operated the surrounding franchise areas of Cleveland, Tn., and North Georgia for many years.”

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Mr. Davis also said former Coca-Cola Bottling (Thomas) Co. executive Sebert Brewer of Chattanooga had once pushed for a local museum related to the Coca-Cola bottling connection to Chattanooga.

Those plans never came to fruition in part due to the World of Coca-Cola museum in nearby Atlanta, although the former Chattanooga Regional History Museum had a section devoted to the history of Coca-Cola bottling in Chattanooga.

Mr. Davis still thinks there is a need to highlight at least in some way the rich Coca-Cola bottling history as it relates to Chattanooga.

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Jcshearer2@comcast.net