Vess Soda is a brand of

soft drink A soft drink (see § Terminology for other names) is a drink that usually contains water (often carbonated), a sweetener, and a natural and/or artificial flavoring. The sweetener may be a sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice, a su ...

manufactured and distributed primarily in the

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

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metropolitan area and recently in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

through

Dollarama Dollarama is a Canadian dollar store retail chain headquartered in Montreal. Since 2009 it is Canada's largest retailer of items for five dollars or less. Dollarama has over 1400 stores and has a presence in every province of Canada; Ontario has ...

and Giant Tiger locations. The company was founded in 1916 by Sylvester Jones, who arrived at the Vess brand name from his nickname. Whistle Orange Soda was introduced in 1925, with the Vess logo on other soda flavors. The 1929 stock market crash left the company in bad financial shape. The business was sold to Donald Schneeberger. Schneeberger was considered a genius at marketing and added several new flavors to the line, many of which are still produced today. At the height of its popularity, Vess had bottling plants in several locations, including

Asheville, North Carolina Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous cit ...

;

Lafayette, Indiana Lafayette ( , ) is a city in and the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, located northwest of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette, on the other side of the Wabash River, is home to Purdue University, whi ...

;

Anderson, Indiana Anderson, named after Chief William Anderson, is a city in and the county seat of Madison County, Indiana, United States. It is the principal city of the Anderson, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses Madison County. Anderson is ...

; and

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

. Vess was purchased in 1994 by

Cott Beverages Primo Water Corporation (formerly Cott Corporation) is an American-Canadian water company offering multi-gallon bottled water, water dispensers, self-service refill water machines, and water filtration appliances. The company is headquartered in ...

.Company News: Cott buys Missouri Bottler for $27.4 Million
/ref> In 2017, Refresco purchased Cott and assumed ownership of the Vess label. Vess continued to be distributed primarily in the Midwestern United States with its core business centering around St. Louis, where the Vess bottle statue near the Gateway Arch is a protected landmark. In 2021, Vess hired Folsom Distributing Company of St. Louis to distribute its products in the St. Louis region.

Current products

As of 2007, Vess is sold in small plastic bottles and cans, as well as 2- and 3-

liter The litre (international spelling) or liter (American English spelling) (SI symbols L and l, other symbol used: ℓ) is a metric unit of volume. It is equal to 1 cubic decimetre (dm3), 1000 cubic centimetres (cm3) or 0.001 cubic metre (m3). ...

bottles. Its slogan is "The Billion Bubble Beverage."

Past products

In the 1980s, Vess produced a chocolate beverage similar to

Yoo-hoo Yoo-hoo is an American brand of chocolate-flavored beverage that was developed by Natale Olivieri in Garfield, New Jersey, in 1928 and is currently manufactured by Mott's. As of 2019, the drink is primarily made from water, high-fructose corn syru ...

called Vess Chocolate. It was discontinued in the mid-1990s. Vess also made Holy Cow collectible soda in a variety of flavors in 1988. It featured an illustration of Harry Caray's face on each can.

References

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External links

Giant replica of a family-size Vess soda bottle neon Sign
Companies based in St. Louis American soft drinks Cuisine of St. Louis Food and drink companies established in 1916 Drink companies of the United States Food and drink companies based in Missouri

Current products

Past products

See also

References

External links