Dublin / Texas / United States
Dublin Dr Pepper HistoryIn 1885 Waco, Texas was a wild frontier town, nicknamed "six-shooter junction." Wade Morrisons Old Corner Drug Store was a prominent business and popular meeting place in downtown Waco. People came in for everything from flea powder to stationery, from cigars to fountain drinks.One of Morrisons employees, pharmacist Charles Alderton, noticed how customers loved the smell of the soda fountain with its many fruit, spice and berry aromas. He wanted to invent a drink that tasted the wonderful way the soda fountain smelled. After much experimentation he finally felt he had hit on "something different." Patrons at the drug store agreed.Soon other soda fountains were buying the syrup from Morrison and serving it. People loved the new unnamed drink and would order it by simply calling out "shoot me a Waco!" But Morrison named it Dr Pepper, after the father of a girl he had loved back in his home state of Virginia.In 1891 Morrison and new partner Robert Lazenby organized Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company in order to bottle and sell Dr Pepper as well as other soft drinks. That same year, while visiting Waco, a Texas businessman by the name of Sam Houston Prim tasted the new fountain drink and knew he wanted to sell it in his bottling plant in Dublin, Texas, 80 miles to the west.Under the direction of Mr. Lazenby Dr Pepper enjoyed steady growth in sales and began to spread in popularity across the country. But it wasnt until 1904 that Dr Pepper gained real national exposure. Along with other soon to be favorites like ice cream cones and hamburgers, Dr Pepper was introduced to the rest of the U. S. and the entire world at the 1904 Worlds Fair in St. Louis.Since then Dr Peppers popularity has grown consistently over the years to become one of the top 3 soft drinks in the United States and the No. 1 non-cola. And over that time Dr Pepper Corporate Headquarters have remained here in Texas. Thats why Dr Pepper can truly claim the title of "Texas Original." Bill Kloster never studied marketing. The words goals, objectives, strategies and tactics werent part of his vocabulary.He didnt promote his product from a textbook ; he promoted it from his heart " a concept that would have left marketing gurus cringing. Except that it worked.Bill Kloster operated on instinct that was so on target that his tiny three-county Dublin Dr Pepper franchise is continuously among the top 10 producers in per capita consumption.Bill knew his business. He started at the bottling plant when he was 14 years old " a job necessitated by the death of his father and his need to help support his mother and four siblings. For the next 67 years, including the day he died, he put in long, hands-on hours, focusing on quality control, community involvement and his own unique style of sometimes blustery, sometimes covert public relations.Bill started as a bottle sorter for 10 cents an hour. He got his first painful lesson in economics when he dropped a pallet of glass bottles. After the damages were deducted from his paycheck, he took home mere pennies " his first paycheck. Before long, plant owner Sam Houston Prim took the young man under his wing, becoming a surrogate father as he watched Bill grow into manhood and into a self-styled promoter of Dublin Dr Pepper.
