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C&C Beverages expands from regional base
FOR C&C COLA INC., CRANFORD, N.J., VARIETY, VALUE AND ITS DISTRIBUTION model keep retailers and consumers in the Northeast happy with this regional brand. As the C&C brand moves into new territories, the company perseveres through a hands-on, back-to-basics approach, says President Mitchell Kelner.
"As a regional brand, and there are not too many left, C&C has been one that has weathered the soda storm over the years," Kelner says. "We have maintained the original C&C formulas that were brought about in the '60s and '70s. We have not compromised. Our concentrates cost more to produce than a competitive regional or typical private label product would cost, but we maintain that because that's what our customers enjoy."
C&C Cola is the brand owner of C&C, with its flagship line of carbonated soft drinks in an assortment of flavors. The company doesn't depend on large supermarket chains for sales, but rather independent retailers who have supported the C&C brand. Distributing 8 million cases annually, C&C Cola is able to keep its beverages value priced for consumers through its back-to-basics business model. It negotiates packaging fees with its co-packers by driving volume, and the company uses an everyday- low price program to create that volume, Kelner says. In addition, C&C has a distribution system to support it, with its sister company East Coast Foods to aid in its distribution efforts.
WAREHOUSE DISTRIBUTION
One of the major advantages C&C Cola has over competitors, Kelner says, is its years of operating a distribution company.
"We take the magic of East Coast Foods and the dynamics of how they run their trucking and incorporate that with how we run the C&C brand," Kelner says. "It's been very unique and has saved us money."
Until 1997, when Kelner's family-owned company Kelco Sales & Marketing Inc. purchased the C&C trademark for the United States, the roots of Kelner's business had been distributor based. Kelco Sales & Marketing owned East Coast Foods, the largest redistributor business in the Northeast, he says. East Coast Foods was started by Kelner's father Meyer Kelner.
In addition to handling C&C products, East Coast Foods represents beverages under contractual agreements to redistribute those products to secondtier wholesalers. These wholesalers supply small...