Vess

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Vess Soda is a brand of soft drink manufactured and distributed primarily in the St. Louis, Missouri, United States metropolitan area and recently in Canada through Dollarama and Giant Tiger locations. The company was founded in 1916. At the height of its popularity, Vess had bottling plants in several locations including Asheville, North Carolina, Lafayette, Indiana, Anderson, Indiana and Cincinnati, Ohio. It is was purchased by Cott Beverages. In 2017, Refresco purchased Cott and assumed ownership of the Vess label. Vess continued to by distributed primarily in the Midwestern United States with its core business centering around St. Louis, Missouri where the Vess bottle statue near the St. Louis Arch is a protected landmark. In 2021, Vess engaged Folsom Distributing Company, a St. Louis favorite son, to distribute the Vess label in the St. Louis region.

Sylvester Jones was the principal founder, who developed the VESS trademark from his nickname. Whistle Orange Soda was introduced in 1925, with the Vess logo on the other soda flavors. The Stock Market Crash of 1929 left the company in bad financial shape. The business was sold to Donald Schneeberger. Schneeberger was considered a genius at marketing and added several new flavors to the line, many of which are still produced today. Vess Beverage assets and division, Vess Specialty Packaging Company, was purchased in 1994 by Cott.^[1]

Current products[]

As of 2007, Vess soda is sold in small plastic bottles and cans, as well as 2 and 3-liter bottles. Its slogan is "The Billion Bubble Beverage".

Past products[]

In the 1980s, Vess soda produced a chocolate beverage almost identical to Yoo-hoo, called Vess Chocolate. It was discontinued in the mid-1990s.

Also made Holy Cow collectible soda in a variety of flavors in 1988. It featured an illustration of Harry Carey's face on each can.

See also[]

• 7 Up
• Coca-Cola
• Pepsi-Cola
• Shasta
• The Bottle District

References[]

External links[]

• Giant replica of a family-size Vess soda bottle neon Sign