THE G&J PEPSI-COLA BOTTLING COMPANY HISTORY

In 1925 two women named Nell and Esther worked in the office of the Grand Pop Bottling Company in Cincinnati. With the early stages of the depression taking place, the owner of Grand Pop decided to put the company on the market. Nell and Esther asked their boyfriends, Walter Gross and Isaac N. Jarson if they would be interested in becoming equal partners in purchasing the business. Walter and Isaac agreed and all four put in 25% and became equal partners in the company. In the next few years, Nell and Walter and Esther and Isaac were married.

From Cincinnati they sent trucks as far as they could in all directions. The Pepsi-Cola Company stopped them only after they had gone so far that they could no longer handle the production necessary in Cincinnati. In 1939 they built a production facility in Hamilton, Ohio. In 1940 they built a production facility in Lexington, KY and bought the Portsmouth, Ohio franchise, which was already in operation.

The business prospered, but in 1955, the Pepsi-Cola Company told them that they needed to build a new production plant in Cincinnati. Rather than go into heavy debt, they decided to sell only the Cincinnati franchise portion of the business, which was roughly half of the sales of the whole company. They decided to build a production facility in Ripley, OH, which left them plants in Hamilton, Ripley, Portsmouth, OH and Lexington, KY.