Bireley's facts for kids
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Bireley's is a popular brand of fruit-flavored drinks. It's known for being non-fizzy, unlike many other soft drinks. The company started in California in 1923, created by Frank W. Bireley. It quickly became famous across the United States. Later, a big company called General Foods bought Bireley's in 1943. While it's not sold in its home country anymore, you can still find Bireley's in Japan, where Asahi Soft Drinks makes it. Until 2019, it was also available in Thailand through Ichitan. As of 2024, Japan is the only place where Bireley's is still sold.
Contents
The Story of Bireley's
How Bireley's Started
The Bireley's brand began with Frank W. Bireley and his orange juice business. He started by selling fresh squeezed orange juice to other students while he was studying at Stanford University. His juice business became very successful. Because of this, Frank Bireley left university and started his own company, the Frank W. Bireley Company, in 1923.
The first drink they made was called Bireley's Orangeade. It was first produced at the company's main factory in North Hollywood. The company grew and opened another bottling plant in Oakland in 1937. They also allowed other local bottling companies across the United States to make and sell Bireley's drinks.
Making the Drinks
The company created and patented a special machine to extract juice. This system involved juicing, heating (pasteurization), and concentrating the juice at the main factory. Then, this concentrated juice was sent to the bottling plants. There, it was mixed with water and sugar to make the final drink. Bireley's marketing often highlighted that their drink was not carbonated, which means it had no bubbles or fizz. By 1942, the company was making about 58 million bottles of the drink every month! Frank Bireley became known as the "orange juice king."
Growing Around the World
In 1943, a large food company called General Foods bought the Bireley's company. Frank Bireley continued to manage the brand. They introduced several new flavors. The brand also started to expand to other countries, using the name Bireley's California Orange. It arrived in Thailand in 1950. In Japan, Asahi Soft Drinks began producing the drink in 1951. Bireley's was very popular in many countries during the 1950s, including the Philippines.
In Japan, Bireley's drinks and its brand name were often seen in movies made by Toho Studios, especially their Kaiju monster films, during the 1960s and 1970s. This was a way for the brand to be shown to many people.
Changes Over Time
In 1959, General Foods sold the Bireley's business to a company called Krim-Ko. Over the next few decades, Bireley's slowly disappeared from most markets around the world. By the 1990s, the international parts of the business were owned by TLC Beatrice. At this point, Bireley's was mainly found only in Thailand and Japan. Asahi had bought the rights to the Bireley's brand in Japan in 1980.
In 2000, TLC Beatrice sold its share of Bireley's in Thailand to Pokka Singapore. However, Pokka soon sold it to Thai investors in 2003 because it was losing money. In 2010, the Thai group, now called Sunny Herb International Beverage, bought the rights to the Bireley's brand in twenty countries where it was registered, but not Japan.
Later, in 2014, the Thai beverage company Ichitan bought all the rights and business for Bireley's in Thailand for a large sum of money. Ichitan hoped to make the brand popular again and expand it to other countries. Even though their marketing was successful at first, the brand did not do as well as they hoped. The Bireley's product line in Thailand was stopped in 2019. This means that Japan is now the only country where you can still find Bireley's drinks.
See also
- Green Spot (soft drink), another orange drink from California that became very popular in Asia
