Dublin Bottling Works is spreading the name of the Irish Capital of Texas one bottle at a time and that is only increasing with the addition of several well-known businesses set to carry the signature soft drinks.
Agreements were made at the end of February for Atwood’s to carry the sodas in their stores and Cracker Barrell to pick up the pink Fru Fru Berry to sell in the country store part of their restaurant chain (that has 654 locations nationwide).
Trucks were coming and going Monday, March 30 as pallets were loaded up to ship out to the new stores in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas.
“Les [Stephen] knew he was going to have a long, long day,” DBW President Kent Crouch said of the longtime warehouse employee operating the lifts to load the trucks.
Crouch thinks Cracker Barrell is particularly a good fit because the chain cares about tradition and consumer wishes.
“I love Cracker Barrell,” Crouch said. “No matter where you are, you know you’re going to get something good that doesn’t change.”
Crouch cited the company reverting to the old logo after people started complaining online. That prompted Crouch to approach the chain after he found a contact who thought he could help out.
“Costco has been a fun adventure,” he said, adding that they have had to do ‘road shows’—special events promoting their products at Costco locations and the store monitors how they sell during the events. DBW has cleared the goal of selling $10,000+ in product across four days each time they’ve done it. Crouch said it’s a lot of work but it means big rewards.
“The other big news is H-E-B is back,” Crouch said. DBW products are returning to H-E-B locations that stopped carrying the sodas during COVID in addition to the 33 locations in which they were being sold. “Almost every store statewide will get it,” he said, noting that smaller stores like the Stephenville location will be exceptions.
Crouch said he is appreciative of each customer and business that carries it from Rocket Fizz, a dedicated soda store to John Nese of Galco Old World Grocery in California who has been buying from the Dublin bottler since 1993. One of the most special is Red Stone.
“Red Stone Foods took a risk with us,” Crouch said, adding that they started in 2012 when the bottler went independent. The company, based in Carrollton, specializes in carrying a mammoth variety of candy and sodas and was instrumental in getting DBW bottles on shelves in other states.
“They’re the ones that got us over the hump,” Crouch said, asserting the partnership “gets us in 48 states.”
Crouch takes no contact for granted.
“I got 10 distributors by just talking to people and asking, “what do you do?,” he said.
That includes C.R. Johnson of China Spring, who showed up in a minivan years ago and asked about helping market the sodas alongside DVDs, used books and tire sealant. He hasn’t missed a week in 14 years, selling thousands of cases in U.S. and Mexico.
Crouch said he treasures every relationship from large chains to small mom and pop stores. In the transition to becoming an independent bottler, the business was reminded just how important every sale was whether selling one soda, one case or one pallet.
DBW also has plans to open the doors back on a beloved landmark.
Plans for DBW to renovate Old Doc’s Soda Shop to become the store for visitors. Crouch said the plan was to start refurbishing Old Doc’s Soda Shop as a retail store this year. This was before work started on resurfacing main street and improving rainwater drainage at several intersection including Elm and Patrick. DBW was appreciative that the new drainage system resulted in the first storm that didn’t flood around their building in decades.
“Once I find out the day they end this construction, we will go back in Old Doc’s Soda Shop and start doing a nice refurbishment,” he said. “I don’t know if we’ll ever bring back the soda shop, but we’ll definitely open that room for retail.”
“I’d love to be able to do tours again,” Crouch added.
Those considerations will wait until after the roadwork but for now the ‘Keepers of the Sweet’ are selling bottles that each have the town name 16 times. Between bottles and fountain syrup, DBW has sold more than 39 million sodas since 2012 and the expectation was to eclipse 40 million by the end of March.
This is big news for a business with a staff in the single digits. Crouch stated his appreciation to Sales Manager Les Stephen, Accounting and Office Manager Shirah Peppmeyer and Sales and Warehouse’s Kelvin Swindle. “None of this would have been possible without them,” he said.
Crouch is glad to spread Dublin’s name, as well as the legacy of the independent facility, across the U.S.
All of this is only possible from those that helped carry on the legacy from the people who have worked there to the fans of their 20 flavors, both locally and abroad.