Royal Crown Cola dates back to 1905 when Claud A. Hatcher owned a grocery store in Columbus, Georgia. He was not satisfied with Coca-Cola’s pricing of its syrup and so decided to start his own production of soft drinks.

Hatcher founded Union Bottling Works in 1905 and started producing Royal Crown Ginger Ale. In 1907 he launched Chero-Cola, a cherry flaoured cola.

The Royal Crown Cola itself was introduced in 1934. Hatcher had died in 1933 and sales director H.R. Mott took over business with great success.

From the 1940s and onwards the company had great sales and was one of most innovative on the soft drink market. In 1954 they were the first to have canned soft drinks on a nationwide scale in the US. In 1958 they launched a line of sugar free soft drinks called Diet Rite, which in 1962 became the first nationally available diet soda in USA. Also, they were the first company to launch a caffeine free cola – RC 100.

The company Union Bottling Works was renamed Chero-Cola Company in 1909 following the big success of their Chero-Cola. This lasted until 1923 when The Coca-Cola Company won a lawsuit and the sole right to use “Cola” in its company name. Chero-Cola Company was now called Chero Company. In 1928 it became Nehi Bottling Company. In 1944, however, the term Cola was again fair game and the company changed its name once again to Royal Crown Cola Company.

Diet Rite was sweetened with cyclamates which was banned during the 1970s due to health concerns. Since Diet Rite was the company’s flagship at the time the controversy caused the sales to plummet for all of Royal Crown Cola Company’s products. In the 1980s the owner Victor Posner made some poor business choises which further weakened the Royal Crown brand.

In 1993 Royal Crown was acquired by Triarc Companies who tried to resuscitate the brand with a big investment in marketing campaigns. Unfortunately to no avail and Royal Crown is still only a small player in the soft drink market.

In 2000 Royal Crown was acquired by Cadbury Schweppes and moved to its Dr Pepper Snapple Group (now Keurig Dr Pepper). In 2001 Cott Corporation acquired the rights to produce and sell Royal Crown outside of USA through its company Royal Crown Cola International.

Sources: Mashed: The untold truth of RC Cola, Wikipedia: RC Cola.

In Kenneth’s collection

330 ml can, 110 year anniversary edition (exp. October 18, 2016)
250 ml bottle, 115 year anniversary edition (exp. November 1, 2020)
250 ml bottle, Cola Slim, 115 year anniversary edition (exp. August 1, 2020)