Cameron Coca-Cola Bottling Co. was a large Coca-Cola Bottling company in

Washington, Pennsylvania Washington, also known as Little Washington to distinguish it from the District of Columbia, is a city in Washington County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. The population was 13,176 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 censu ...

. The company was founded in 1889 as Cameron Flavorings. In the early 1900s, the company began a relationship with Coca-Cola. The company had plants in

Houston, Pennsylvania Houston is a borough in Washington County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,165 at the 2020 census. Students in Houston and neighboring Chartiers Township attend school in the Chartiers-Houston School District. Geography Hous ...

Wheeling, West Virginia Wheeling is a city in Ohio County, West Virginia, Ohio and Marshall County, West Virginia, Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The county seat of Ohio County, it lies along the Ohio River in the foothills of the Appalachian Mo ...

, and

Canton, Ohio Canton () is a city in Stark County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, eighth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 70,872 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Canton–Massillo ...

. In 1996, the company's facilities were converted to

methane gas Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The abundance of methane on Earth makes ...

with a $124,000 grant by the

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is the agency in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania responsible for protecting and preserving the land, air, water, and public health through enforcement of the state's environmental laws ...

. The company operated by purchasing the syrup from Coca-Cola, mixing it, and distributing it to the surrounding areas. By the late 1990s, Cameron Coca-Cola was 10th largest Coke bottler and the second longest family-run Coke bottler in the nation. The company had a number of deals with local school districts where they paid thousands of dollars for exclusive rights to sell Coke on school premises. The deal with Hampton Township School District paid the district $40,000 over seven years. The deal with Upper St. Clair School District paid the district $50,000 over five years. In the deal with

Quaker Valley School District The Quaker Valley School District is an Allegheny County, Pennsylvania school district covering the Boroughs of Sewickley, Leetsdale, Edgeworth, Glen Osborne, Sewickley Hills, Sewickley Heights, Bell Acres, Haysville and Glenfield, as wel ...

, Cameron agreed to buy several new scoreboards in exchange for the right to have their logo on the scoreboard and for exclusive rights to sell Coke on school premises. There was another exclusive deal with

Woodland Hills School District Woodland Hills School District is a public school district located in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, serving twelve municipalities in the Pittsburgh area; Braddock, Braddock Hills, Chalfant, Churchill, East Pittsburgh, Edgewood, Forest ...

. Cameron Coca-Cola sponsored championship

harness racing Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait (a trot or a pace). They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, spider, or chariot occupied by a driver. In Europe, and less frequently in Australia ...

The Meadows Racetrack and Casino The Hollywood Casino at The Meadows, formerly The Meadows Racetrack and Casino, originally (1963) just The Meadows horse-racing track, is a Standardbred Horse, Standardbred harness racing, harness-racing Racetrack, track and slot-machine casino ...

. The company was also a namesake sponsor of the Pittsburgh-Allegheny County Fair.

Family and philanthropy

The patriarch of the Cameron Family, Wilfred Cameron, died in 1999. The Cameron family have been closely connected to

Washington & Jefferson College Washington & Jefferson College (W&J College or W&J) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Washington, Pennsylvania, United States. The college traces its origin to three Presbyterian m ...

for several decades. A number of Camerons attended the college, with three individuals serving on the board of trustees. Winnie Cameron, who served on the board of trustees, has been awarded the Alumni Distinguished Service Award and an honorary degree. In 1999, the family donated $2.65 million, one of the top 5 donations in the college history, to redesign and expand College Field, which was renamed

Cameron Stadium Cameron Stadium is an outdoor football stadium adjacent to the campus of Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania. Facilities and amenities Located one mile from campus. It is the host of W&J's home football games, men's and ...

. They also funded the digital scoreboard at

Henry Memorial Center The Salvitti Family Gymnasium previously known as the Henry Memorial Center is a multi-purpose collegiate sports complex on the campus of Washington & Jefferson College. It houses two main athletic facilities, a gymnasium and a natatorium ...

and

Ross Memorial Park and Alexandre Stadium Ross Memorial Park and Alexandre Stadium is a combined multi-purpose outdoor athletic facility in North Franklin Township, Pennsylvania owned by Washington & Jefferson College. The playing surface is made of FieldTurf FieldTurf is a brand of ...

. In 2006, the family was awarded the Robert M. Murphy Award and inducted into the W&J Athletic Hall of Fame.

Sale to Coca-Cola Enterprises in 1998

In 1998, Cameron Coca-Cola Bottling was purchased by

Coca-Cola Enterprises Coca-Cola Enterprises was a marketer, producer, and distributor of Coca-Cola products. It was formerly the anchor bottler for Western Europe and most of North America. Coca-Cola Enterprises' products included Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, ...

, the largest Coke bottling company in the world. The deal, which coincided with the purchase of five other Coke bottlers, was part of a play by Coca-Cola Enterprises to consolidate Coke's distribution chain amid the

Cola Wars The Cola wars are the long-time rivalry between soft drink producers The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo, who have engaged in mutually-targeted marketing campaigns for the direct competition between each company's product lines, especially their ...

against

Pepsi Pepsi is a Carbonated water, carbonated soft drink with a cola flavor, manufactured by PepsiCo which serves as its flagship product. In 2023, Pepsi was the second most valuable soft drink brand worldwide behind Coca-Cola; the two share a long ...

. All told, the six deals cost Coca-Cola Enterprises $770 million in stock, cash, debt, and assumed debt.

Later operations

In 2008, following the sale, the Cameron operation moved to

Kalama Kalama Hakaleleponi Kapakuhaili (1817 – September 20, 1870) was a Queen consort of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi alongside her husband, Kauikeaouli, who reigned as King Kamehameha III. She chose the baptismal name Hakaleleponi after the Biblical f ...

– in Washington state but on the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...

near Portland, Oregon – and was re-christened the Cameron Family Glass Packaging LLC, with the goal of producing wine bottles for the wine industry in the Western United States. There, the company built a wine bottling plant. The facility, which cost $109M to build, became the first new glass plant built in the nation in over 30 years to exclusively produce wine bottles. It became the largest such plant to be operated on an "eco-friendly" basis, with an electric furnace using hydroelectricity generated by the Columbia River. The plant provided wine bottles for a number of Washington wines, but had to file for

Chapter 7 bankruptcy Chapter 7 of Title 11 U.S. Code is the bankruptcy code that governs the process of liquidation under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. This is in contrast to bankruptcy under Chapter 11 and Chapter 13, which govern the process of ''re ...

in 2009 due to a furnace failure that caused $12M in damages within a month of startup. Production was later resumed under new ownership following a court-ordered sale in 2010.

References

{{Washington, Pennsylvania Coca-Cola bottlers Companies based in Washington County, Pennsylvania Defunct companies based in Pennsylvania Food and drink companies disestablished in 1998 1889 establishments in Pennsylvania Food and drink companies established in 1889 1998 disestablishments in Pennsylvania Drink companies of the United States