R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press | To fill orders generated by previous visits to customers of Bink’s Coca-Cola, employees load product into a truck in the warehouse at 3001 Danforth Rd. The warehouse for Bink’s Wines & Beverages is also on site.

ESCANABA — Two current local businesses could be brought to mind by the words:

“When you thirst for drinks, think Bink’s.”

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 match the pace of laws, trends, new releases and technology, the above slogan is more than a cute rhyme. As the businesses run by the Binks have been distributing beverages for well over a century, their family 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 evolved from that first corporation Nicholas A. Bink brought to life five generations ago: Bink Wholesale Liquor and Supply Company, which began in 1903. Their deliveries were made by horse-drawn wagon.

The liquor business ran for about 15 years before halting official business because of Prohibition — though Robert (“Bob”) Bink, current president of both Bink operations and grandson of Nicholas A., believes they may have been bootlegging at some point.

To enter the soft drink business, Nicholas A. purchased City Bottling Works, its equipment and buildings at 308 N. 15th St. from H. C. Larson and appointed son Jacob A. Bink as sales manager at the end of 1921, according to the Escanaba Morning Press. At the time, the bottling works was known primarily for Ward’s Orange-Crush, but soon after “N. A. 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 arrived in syrup form and were either distributed to establishments with fountains or mixed with carbonated water on premises to produce soda pop, which then filled small bottles, some of which bore the name “Bink’s Beverages” on black-and-white labels. Deliveries were made to homes as well as retailers; the company also served as a distibutor for beers made 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 a year-to-year contract with the Coca-Cola Company to recieve their syrup and bottle six-and-a-half-ouncers of that most famous of soft drinks. In four years, production had increased 600%, and the family sought to purchase a Coca-Cola franchise, which became successful in ’36 and continued to grow.

A 1936 ad for City Bottling Works read: “Today, its strictly modern equipment has a capacity of 75 cases per hour.”

The Binks soon incorporated a new business under the name “Coca-Cola Company of Delta County.” According to the paperwork on file with the State, signed by Anna on July 15, 1937, the purposes of the corporation were “to buy, sell and deal in Coca-Cola, beer, ale, porter, stout, malt extract and all malt and brewed liquors, and to manufacture, buy, sell and deal in all kinds of soft drinks and all materials used therein.”

The four children of Anna and Nicholas A. took equal ownership when their mother died in 1940. Two short years later, the sugar rationing of World War II demanded a change, and the decision of the local business was to discontinue all other soft drinks besides Coca-Cola, a pattern that continued until ’56.

It was during that era that Bob entered the picture of the business — he said that he started working for his father (Nicholas J.) at age 12 but moved to full-time when he was a teen.

“We bottled six-and-a-half-ounce bottles of Coca-Cola, that’s all, nothing else,” Bob recalled. “It came off the production line, and it was wet. And in the 1950s, the cardboard — the paper board that you made a six-pack with — wasn’t what we have today. And if you put the wet bottle into those, it would disintegrate the bottom … so they had to bottle everything in a 24-pocket wooden case. After they dried, my dad paid me a penny a case to transfer it from the 24-pocket case to the six-pack paper carrier. 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 flavors of pop hit the market. With a need for more space, Nicholas J. arranged the construction of a new building 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 the corporation’s sales manager.

New products like Sprite, Tab, and Fresca emerged in the ’60s, and more sizes — like 10-ounce — were available, too. In ’72, premix — soft drinks sold in five-gallon tanks — came out.

In ’78, a few months after the death of Nicholas J., Bob was appointed president of the corporation by the board of directors. He bought 3.2 acres of property on Danforth Road, the current premises; a new building was erected and occupied by December of ’79.

Though ownership was then in the hands of a few parties, Bob and Mildred Bink bought out the other shareholders until gaining full ownership in 1991.

In 1996, Nicholas R. Bink became the marketing manager of Bink’s Coca-Cola Bottling Company — the name had been changed some 16 years prior to reflect that it covered not just Delta County — after obtaining a marketing degree from NMU and working for Coca-Cola Enterprise in Grand Rapids for a year. He is now the general manager.

Many new products — juices, teas, sports drinks, energy drinks, bottled water — have been introduced and sometimes dropped in the last 30 years. Bink’s Coca-Cola has handled a lot of them, but yet another company developed to cover a different market.

In 2000, Bink’s Wine & Beverages began distributing wine and certain soft drinks like Stewart’s and Arizona Tea.

Today, though 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’s sales, delivery, truck loaders, office staff, service technicians, merchandisers.

Bink’s Wines & Beverages is slightly different, since they dont have merchandising or service technicians working on vending machines, but “it’s like the same model,” Nicholas R. said. “We’re going to the stores, generating orders, loading trucks for the next day. (Our) people come and deliver and service the customer.”

The practice of going to the retailers and taking inventory to produce orders before delivering set quantites is different from way back in the day, when a truck full of product would make stops at various businesses that would order off the truck.

A big change occured in 2004, when the company finally stopped the bottling process. Now, the focus is mainly distribution.

It was pretty much a necessity, given how many different products and sizes there are to deal with. Off the top of his head, Nicholas R. counted ten flavors of Coca-Cola alone — diet, cherry, caffeine-free, etc. — and estimated there were 16 sizes for them. That’s not counting the new Orange Cream Coca-Cola that’s going to be released soon.

The bottle recycling process also is partially undertaken at the Danforth Road facility. When people return their plastic carbonated beverage bottles or aluminum cans to stores for a refund, the stores then sell them back to Bink’s. Plastic are separated into green and clear, then shredded. The fine plastic confetti is sold in bulk to companies that make them down and begin the bottle-manufacturing process over again. Aluminum cans are crushed and sold to other companies.

Both Bink’s businesses reach five counties — Delta, Schoolcraft, Iron, Dickinson and Menominee.

When asked what changes and trends have emerged as far as popular drinks, “I think people are drinking healthier, and drinking more zero calorie products, like Powerade Zero or zero vitamin water — or just regular water. We sell Smartwater, Dasani water, Chippewa water. You know, those categories are growing, but at the same time, people keep drinking more carbonated beverages too,” said Nicholas R.

“Your volume continues to grow,” Bob added.

Recently, Nicholas R. Bink II 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 onboarding marks the fifth generation of family involvement for the Escanaba mainstay.