Vess facts for kids
Vess Soda is a popular brand of soft drink. It is mostly sold in the St. Louis area of Missouri, USA. Recently, you can also find it in Canada at stores like Dollarama and Giant Tiger. The company started in 1916. It was founded by Sylvester Jones, who got the name "Vess" from his own nickname.
Charles Leiper Grigg, who later created the famous 7UP soda, first invented an orange soda called "Whistle." Vess still sells Whistle soda today! Because Whistle was so successful, Grigg became the sales and marketing manager for Vess. However, he and Vess had a big disagreement, and Grigg left the company. He left Whistle soda behind. While Whistle was sold on its own, the Vess logo was used for other soda flavors.
In 1929, the stock market crashed, which caused big money problems for the company. The business was then sold to Donald Schneeberger. Schneeberger was very good at marketing. He added many new flavors to the Vess soda line. Many of these flavors are still made today. When Vess was most popular, it had bottling factories in several cities. These included Asheville, North Carolina, and Cincinnati, Ohio.
In 1994, Cott Beverages bought Vess. Then, in 2017, Refresco bought Cott and took over Vess. Vess soda continued to be sold mainly in the Midwest United States. Its main business stayed in St. Louis. In St. Louis, there is even a Vess bottle statue near the Gateway Arch that is a protected landmark! In 2021, Vess hired Folsom Distributing Company to help sell its products in the St. Louis area.
What Vess Sells Now
As of 2007, Vess soda is sold in small plastic bottles and cans. You can also find it in larger 2-liter and 3-liter bottles. Their fun slogan is "The Billion Bubble Beverage."
Past Vess Products
In the 1980s, Vess made a chocolate drink called Vess Chocolate. It was similar to Yoo-hoo. However, Vess stopped making it in the mid-1990s.
Vess also created special collectible sodas in 1988 called "Holy Cow." These cans had a picture of the famous baseball announcer Harry Caray's face on them. They came in different flavors.
See also
- 7 Up
- Coca-Cola
- Pepsi-Cola
- Shasta
- The Bottle District
