When Leo King, Jr. began working for Royal Crown Beverage Co. of Evansville, there were nine other soft drink bottlers in the area. 

The Royal Crown plant is the last of them left. King, who became the sole owner of the company in the mid 70's, led it through many of those changes.  For that work, Beverage World Magazine is inducting him into its Soft Drink Hall of Fame.

King, now 76, came to Royal Crown in l958. According to his estimates, the United States then contained about 9,000 bottling plants.  They had the job of packaging the soft drinks sold at local restaurants and grocery stores. 

The tale of their disappearance is similar to that told in any industry that has had to adopt machinery and grow to stay abreast of competitors. 

In the l950's, workers at the local RC plant could fill about 23 bottles a minute. The adoption of modern machinery over time has brought that rate to about 500 a minute along side another l,100 cans...King said. 

The improvements drove down costs and forces bottlers to churn out greater numbers of their products.  "We had to be a buyer and increase our volume or be a seller and let somebody else produce for us", King said. 

Around the time King became sole owner of the plant, he began to buy competitors in nearby cities.  The acquisitions included operations in Vincennes, Terre Haute, Paducah, Bowling Green, KY.  Many were closed or replaced by warehouses.

About 300 people now work for the company, both at the Evansville Plant and in its warehouses elsewhere.  The business sells soft drinks to more than two million consumers in five states. 

Along side RC Cola, the Royal Crown plant's products include:  SKI, Diet Rite, 7 UP, A & W Root Beer, Canada Dry Ginger Ale , Sunkist Orange Soda and Big Red. 

Congratulations Leo !!!!