30+ Years in Operation Finalist: Ozarks Coca-Cola/Dr Pepper Bottling Co.

In 1920, Ed Rice Sr. purchased Springfield’s Electric Bottling Co. The main products were seltzer water and Farmer Beverages, a line of mainly fruit-flavored soft drinks. The associated franchise rights to sell the Coca-Cola brand – newly listed on the New York Stock Exchange – represented only a small portion of Electric’s overall business.

Nearly a century later, Ozarks Coca-Cola/Dr Pepper Bottling Co. is focused on little else. With full or partial franchise coverage of 32 counties, the company services more than 20 product lines. In addition to the flagship Coke and Dr Pepper brands, offerings now include Sprite, Barq’s Root Beer, the Canada Dry label and associated products, Fanta, Minute Maid, various flavored teas, sports and energy drinks, Yoo-Hoo chocolate drink, V8 vegetable juice and bottled water.

The company’s Packer Road location in Springfield is home to all bottling operations, with production accommodations for seven different sizes of recyclable packaging and warehouse space for 450 items. In addition to a companywide focus on recycling, Ozarks Coca-Cola employs energy-saving initiatives such as gas-saving trailer skirts on its 110-vehicle fleet of delivery vehicles and bottle cleaning via ionized air, dramatically reducing wastewater usage.

Employing 282 locally and 325 across all locations, which include sales centers in Bolivar, Lebanon and Rolla, Ozarks Coca-Cola operates on a direct store delivery model, wherein all retail point-of-purchase details are managed by locally based employee merchandisers.  

Steady incremental growth during the last decade – averaging 1.5 percent annually – has made Ozarks Coca-Cola one of the top 10 independent Coca-Cola bottlers nationwide based on sales volumes. Ozarks Coca-Cola CEO Ed Rice Jr. says during the past decade, independent bottlers have decreased from about 500 to 70 as overall soda consumption nationwide dipped by seven percent.

Rice believes Ozarks Coca-Cola’s roots as a family business are the foundation of its success. Even though so many bottlers have given way to a regionalized production/distribution model, he believes being a local bottler makes a difference.

“A public company has different obligations,” he says. “Their leadership has to worry about quarterly numbers. As a result, many of the decisions that get made are based on short-term results. A family-run company has different goals.”

In testament, Rice’s daughter, company Vice Presdident Sally Hargis, along with her sisters and cousins, are part owners in the company.

Ozarks Coca-Cola maintains high community visibility through signage, product and underwriting support for dozens of community events each year. When asked about Ozarks Coca-Cola’s greatest impact on the community, Rice credits a management culture that emphasizes government and nonprofit organization board service.

“We are trying to be what we were set up to be,” he says. “As a family-run business, we all demonstrate corporate responsibility in everything we do.”[[In-content Ad]]