Company History
B.W. Stetson Company was incorporated in 1951 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Bridgeton, New Jersey. The new company was founded to allow the local bottling company to enter businesses which did not conform to the rigid Coca-Cola bottler franchise agreements of the day. These territorial agreements strictly limited the bottler to just one product, Coca-Cola, in only one package, the six and one-half ounce returnable bottle.
The Company was named for its founder, Basil W. Stetson, then owner of the Bridgeton Coca-Cola bottling franchise. Mr. Stetson came to New Jersey in 1950 after purchasing the local bottling franchise from The Coca-Cola Company, Atlanta.
In 1971, Stetson was purchased from Coke by Harold Gunn, formerly chief operating officer of Coke. This change marked the beginning of its history as a fully independent, locally owned company.
Stetson grew to be the leading vending company in a five county area of southern New Jersey. Company services and offerings included bottled water and coffee services, catering and manual cafeteria operations to customers in this same area.
In 2007 the vending, catering and cafeteria businesses were sold, permitting Stetson to focus on bottled water and coffee services and products.
General Industry Background
Coke bottlers of the 1920’s through the 1950’s had achieved soft drink market shares of 70% to 90% and were seeking opportunities for incremental growth. Since further opportunities seemed limited with Coca-Cola in six and one-half ounce returnable bottles, the bottlers looked for contiguous businesses. Coin operated vending machines for Coke had been introduced in the early 1930’s. By the late 1940’s, most bottlers had achieved excellent distribution of their product in all the industrial and institutional accounts within their franchised territories.
By 1950, candy, coffee, cigarette and cold cup vending offered an obvious opportunity for both growth and protection of existing markets for Coca-Cola bottlers. Another possible growth experiment, door to door sales of Coca-Cola bottles in six-pack cartons, was promoted and funded by the parent company in 1950 and 1951. This experiment may have been one of the reasons for the incorporation of Stetson in 1951, three years before the company actually entered the vending business.
Candy and cigarette vending were pioneered by Canteen Corporation during the 1930’s. Hot cup vending machines were introduced shortly after World War II. During this period, Coke bottlers worked closely with local Canteen vending branches in close, non-competitive alliances which provided all available vended products to industrial customers. This alliance of products from the two companies became known as “Full Line Vending”.
When The Coca-Cola Company, the international parent franchiser, developed new technology for cold cup vending in the late 40’s, local bottlers suddenly found themselves in direct competition for industrial vending sales of Coca-Cola with Canteen Corporation.
Canteen now had access to a new Coke package that they could vend without the bottler being involved. It was easy for an aggressive bottler to decide that he would use his extensive local contacts and his vending experience to meet this new competitive threat from his former ally.
These are the circumstances which led to the founding of B. W. Stetson Company. The local Coca-Cola Bottling Company participated in a nationwide study by The Coca-Cola Company of the growth and profitability potentials of a full line vending industry. In 1954, Stetson placed its first candy and coffee machines in a local account and entered the full line vending business.
