i know that dr pepper is owned by cadbury schweppes, however i've seen differing reports as to who is bottling it, is it coke? pepsi? or both?

It currently is owned by Cadbury-Schweppes, true, but it wasn't always. Many years ago when local franchises were awarded, they went to many different bottlers, some of which were aligned with Coke, some with Pepsi, some with other products. Independant franchises don't change when the parent company changes. And local ownership of those franchises may be sold, and changed, but in many places the origanal alignments are still in place - so it's possible that in one county you'll find that Pepper is bottled by Coke, and the next county over it's by Pepsi, and then across the state it might be a 3rd tier bottler.

andy

i really apprechiate the information. that makes sense.

In most parts of Texas, Dr Pepper is so strong here that they bottle themselves. They manufacture and distribute everything through their own facilities, without Coke or Pepsi in the picture at all.

Actually in Texas, DPSUBG delivers a large majority of the volume but CCE who delivers most of West Texas and Abtex Pepsi delivers quite a bit of Dr Pepper.

Nationally here are the largest Dr Pepper bottlers
CCE - 27.8%
PBG - 17.0%
DPSUBG - 16.7%
Pepsi Americas - 6.6%

Where I live, I can drive about 3 hours, and Find Pepper from PBG, CCE, indie Pepsi bottlers, indie Coke bottlers, and even RC Winchester. A little further and I can get into DPSUBG territory in West Virgina.

I have to say, out of everyone, Philadelphia Coke takes care of the brand the most. Strong package availibility, in all coolers and most vendors, they run all the promotions, etc.. Plus, they had the Army/Navy bottles this year.

[ 01-05-2005, 11:55 PM: Message edited by: fusion ]