IBC Root Beer was founded in 1919 by the Griesedieck family as the Independent Breweries Company in St. Louis, Missouri. Root beer found a market as a legal beverage during the era of Prohibition. The Independent Breweries Company closed, but the trademark was purchased by the Kranzberg family who operated the Northwestern Bottling Company. In the late 1930s, it was sold to the National Bottling Company owned by the Shucart family. Popularity and distribution declined after World War II.
In 1976, the IBC trademark was sold to Taylor Beverages, which was then sold to the Seven-Up Company in 1980. After Dr Pepper and Seven Up merged in 1986, distribution of IBC became national throughout the United States. Ultimately Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc. was acquired by Cadbury Schweppes in 1995.
IBC was subsequently organized within the Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages unit of Cadbury Schweppes, before being spun off into Dr Pepper Snapple Group in 2008.
Famous quotes containing the words root and/or beer:
“Propaganda has a bad name, but its root meaning is simply to disseminate through a medium, and all writing therefore is propaganda for something. It’s a seeding of the self in the consciousness of others.”
—Elizabeth Drew (1887–1965)
“prohibition makes you
want to cry
into your beer and
denies you the beer
to cry into”
—Don Marquis (1878–1937)