 Brewer/bottler #470 | | | | | | | | | | | Extra info | Cilo Chesterman founded the company in 1872 in Dyersville, Iowa. Chesterman Co. was a pioneer in the bottling industry in the United States, making its own sweetened soda water. Unsweetened carbonated water was first bottled in Europe in the late eighteenth century and spread quickly to the United States in the mid nineteenth Century. It was thirty-seven years after soda water was first brought to this country that Cilo Chesterman started bottling it in Dyersville.
In 1904, as Cilo’s son, C.B. Chesterman, was taking responsibility at the firm. Cilo took what later turned out to be a most important step, he added a drink called Coca-Cola. The new product did not do well at first and was discontinued for three years. However, by 1919, both the bottling business, and the restaurant supply business were growing so rapidly that C.B. (his friends called him Ben, while everyone else called him C.B.) built a brand new facility on Bluff Street in Sioux City, Iowa.
By the 1940?s, the next generation of Chestermans was taking over the reigns of the company. C.B.’s son, Cy B., along with his sister, aunt, brother-in-law and cousin, managed the daily operations of the company for several decades. Cy B’s son, Cy W., began his career in management in the 1970?s and was elected president upon Cy B.’s death in 1989. Current management includes a fifth generation of the Chesterman family, Cy W. Jr and Jay Chesterman.
The original Sioux City franchise area has expanded over the years through several acquisitions. Since 1985, growth through acquisition has been rapid and steady. The total Chesterman Coca-Cola territories now include more than 900,000 people living in Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Illinois communities. The Sioux City production center fills over 10 million units of bottles, cans, premix, and post mix syrups on four production lines.
In 1994, Chesterman Co. re-entered the fast growing bottled water category (the company had its own brand of bottled water in the early 1900?s) by acquiring a small water company in southern Minnesota operated under the brand name of Kandiyohi. Through a series of successful acquisitions the new company, Premium Waters Inc., now operates seven production centers producing all types of premium still (non-carbonated), spring, purified and distilled bottled waters for customers across the United States |
| | | | | | | Other names used for this Brewer/bottler | | Name 1 | Coca-Cola Bottling Co. (Sioux City, IA) |
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