RR Branstrom | Daily press | To fill orders generated from previous visits to Bink’s Coca-Cola customers, employees load product onto a truck at the warehouse at 3001 Danforth Rd. Bink’s Wine and Liquor Store is also on site.
ESCANABA – Two current local businesses come to mind with the words:
“When you’re thirsty for a drink, think of Bink.”
It’s been over 120 years since Nicholas A. Bink founded a company that would become a legacy for his family and the city of Escanaba. While the business model, products, names and operations have changed over the years to keep pace with laws, trends, new releases and technology, the above slogan is more than a cute rhyme. As the businesses run by Binks have been distributing drinks for more than a century, their last name is a household one in the area.
Today, two businesses are headquartered at 3001 Danforth Road: Bink’s Coca-Cola and Bink’s Wines & Beverages. They have different products, different books, different employees and different trucks, but both have a similar model and have evolved from the first corporation that Nicholas A. Bink started five generations ago: Bink Wholesale Liquor and Supply Company, which started in 1903. deliveries were made by horse-drawn wagon.
The liquor business ran for about 15 years before going out of business due to Prohibition – although Robert (“Bob”) Bink, the current president of both Bink operations and grandson of Nicholas A., believes they may have been at one point.
To enter the soft drink business, Nicholas A. purchased the City Bottling Works, its equipment and buildings at 308 N. 15th St. by HC Larson and appointed son Jacob A. Bink as sales manager in late 1921, according to the Escanaba Morning Press. At that time the bottling works were chiefly known for Ward’s Orange-Crush, but soon after NA Bink and Son remodeled and reopened, options expanded. There was Blue Bird, Mission Orange, Julep Lime, Par Lemon Soda and Howell’s Ginger Ale, to name a few.
The flavors came in syrup form and were either dispensed at the facilities by fountains or mixed with sparkling water on the premises to produce soda pop, which was then filled into small bottles, some of which bore the name “Bink’s Drinks” on black and white labels. Deliveries were made to homes as well as retailers; the company also served as a distributor for beers produced by the Delta Brewing Company. Glass bottles were collected, cleaned and reused.
In the 1930s, in the hands of Nicholas A.’s widow, Anna Bink, City Bottling Works entered into a year-to-year contract with the Coca-Cola Company to receive their syrup and six-and-a-half-cup bottles. from the most famous of non-alcoholic drinks. In four years, production had increased 600%, and the family sought to buy a Coca-Cola franchise, which became successful in ’36 and continued to grow.
A 1936 ad for City Bottling Works read: “Today, its state-of-the-art equipment has a capacity of 75 boxes per hour.”
Binks soon incorporated a new business under the name “The Coca-Cola Company of Delta County.” According to documents on file with the state, signed by Anna on July 15, 1937, the corporation’s goals were “to buy, sell and sell Coca-Cola, beer, ale, porter, stout, malt extract and all alcoholic malt and brew liquors, and to manufacture, buy, sell and trade in all kinds of non-alcoholic beverages and all materials used in them. “
Anna and Nicholas A.’s four children took equal ownership when their mother died in 1940. Two years later, World War II sugar rationing required a change and the local business’ decision was to discontinue all other beverages non-alcoholic except Coca-Cola, a pattern that continued until ’56.
It was during that era that Bob entered the business picture – he said he started working for his father (Nicholas J.) at the age of 12, but moved to full time when he was a teenager.
“We’ve been bottling 6.5 gram Coca-Cola bottles, that’s all, nothing else.” Bob recalled. “It came off the production line and it was wet. And in the 1950s, cardboard—the paper board you made a six-pack of—wasn’t what we have today. And if you put the wet bottle in them, it would fall apart at the end … so they had to stuff everything into a 24-pocket wooden box. After they were dry, my dad paid me a penny to transfer it from the 24-pocket box to the six-pack paper holder. So, as a 12, 13-year-old boy, I was making four or five dollars a week.
In ’56, a new size was introduced – a 26-ounce bottle – and then in the late ’50s and ’60s, more and more pop flavors came on the market. Needing more space, Nicholas J. arranged for a new building to be constructed at 1030 N. Lincoln Rd.
In ’64, Bob graduated with a degree in business administration from Northern Michigan University and returned to the family business full time as corporate sales manager.
New products like Sprite, Tab, and Fresca appeared in the 60s, and more sizes—like 10-ounces—were also available. In ’72, premix came out – soft drinks sold in five-gallon tanks.
In ’78, a few months after the death of Nicholas J., Bob was named president of the corporation by the board of directors. He purchased 3.2 acres of property on Danforth Street, the present premises; a new building was erected and occupied in December of ’79.
Although ownership was then in the hands of several parties, Bob and Mildred Bink bought out the other shareholders until they acquired full ownership in 1991.
In 1996, Nicholas R. Bink became marketing manager of Bink’s Coca-Cola Bottling Company — the name had been changed some 16 years earlier to reflect that it didn’t just cover Delta County — after earning a marketing degree from NMU and working for Coca- Cola Enterprise in Grand Rapids for one year. Now he is the general manager.
Many new products – juices, teas, sports drinks, energy drinks, bottled water – have been introduced and sometimes rejected in the last 30 years. Bink’s Coca-Cola has addressed many of these, but another company developed to cover a different market.
In 2000, Bink’s Wine & Beverages began distributing wine and some soft drinks such as Stewart’s and Arizona Tea.
Today, although they operate out of two separate but connected warehouses, the two businesses operate very similarly.
Bink’s Coca-Cola employs about 45 people, Nicholas R. said: there are sales, distribution, truck loaders, office staff, service technicians, merchandisers.
Bink’s Wines and Spirits is a bit different, as they don’t have merchandising or service technicians working the vending machines, but “It’s like the same pattern,” Nicholas R. said. “We will go to the stores, generate orders, load trucks for the next day. (Our) people come and deliver and serve the customer.”
The practice of going to retailers and taking inventory to produce orders before certain quantities are delivered is different than it used to be, when a truck full of products would stop at various businesses that ordered the truck.
A big change happened in 2004, when the company finally stopped the bottling process. Now the focus is mainly distribution.
It was pretty much a must, considering how many different products and sizes to get. Nicholas R. counted only ten flavors of Coca-Cola – diet, cherry, decaffeinated, etc. – and estimated that there were 16 sizes for them. That’s not counting the new Coca-Cola Orange Cream coming out soon.
The bottle recycling process is also partially undertaken at the Danforth Road facility. When people return their plastic soda bottles or aluminum cans to stores for a refund, the stores sell them back to Bink’s. The plastic is separated into green and clear, then shredded. The fine plastic confetti is sold in bulk to the companies that manufacture them and start the bottling process again. Aluminum cans are crushed and sold to other companies.
Both of Bink’s businesses reach five counties – Delta, Schoolcraft, Iron, Dickinson and Menominee.
When asked what changes and trends have emerged regarding popular drinks, “I think people are drinking healthier and drinking more zero-calorie products, like Powerade Zero or Vitamin Zero water – or just regular water. We sell Smartwater, Dasani Water, Chippewa Water. You know, those categories are growing, but at the same time, people are still drinking more soda.” Nicholas R said.
“Your volume continues to rise,” added Bob.
Nicholas R. Bink II recently joined the twin companies as operations manager after earning a degree in supply chain management from Michigan State University and working for a beer distributor for two years. His coming on board marks the fifth generation of family involvement for the Escanaba mainstay.
