Type private Fate closed, IBC name sold Headquarters St. Louis, Missouri | Industry Beverage Founded 1919 | |
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Successor Northwestern Bottling Company | ||
The Independent Breweries Company was a syndicate founded in St. Louis, Missouri, by the combination of Griesediecks' National Brewery, Columbia (Alpen Brau), the Gast brewery in Baden, A.B.C., and Wagner Brewing Company. This combination was ill fated due to high overhead with too many executives and low profits forcing IBC into receivership. The IBC Root Beer was the main survivor of the syndicate.
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Root beer
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 7 Up merged in 1986, distribution of IBC became national throughout the United States. Ultimately Dr Pepper/Seven Up 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.
As of July 2016, IBC has reformulated its beverages, using cane sugar in place of high fructose corn syrup. This has resulted in what many have perceived to be an inferior product, squelching the original "bite" and providing a cloyingly sweet, generic carbonated beverage. The bottles are now distributed in 4-bottle packs (instead of the original 6), and no longer have the IBC logo formed into the bottle itself, but rather printed on a plain brown bottle. This change has also resulted in increase in average price per bottle.