Who’s Prescott Bottling & Distributing Co., Inc.?

When I was first introduced to Prescott Bottling & Distributing Company,  I quickly came to an understanding.  There simply isn’t much out on the web regarding Prescott.  Not because the company is so new, nor because the company is shrouded in a cloak of secrecy, but more so because the company seems to find a sense of pride in its humble beginnings and doesn’t feel the need to be boastful. No wonder they’re Southern!

Prescott Bottling & Distributing Company, Inc. came into existence in 1929. When Raymond Prescott Senior and Raymond Prescott Jr. founded the company, they founded it as Double Cola Bottling. Before long, Sun Drop became the biggest seller of Prescott.

Prescott has a staff of warehouse workers, drivers to deliver the cases of beverage, and office staff.  I spoke to one of the employees, and she was more than willing to discuss her employer and why she loves working for Prescott.  In a day and age where loyalty is quickly falling to the wayside, commitment is becoming a thing of the past and work ethic seems to be diminishing, it was absolutely EFFERVESCENT to speak to a Sun Drop employee.

Because Prescott Bottling & Distributing Company is humble, they don’t jump up and boast about how they’ve contributed to the community.  The company gives back to the community in the form of roughly 35 jobs to a small town of about 18,000 (according to the 2000 census), they sponsor athletic events for schools and churches as well as co-sponsor larger events:

• Tullahoma Annual Soap Box Derby — For the past 10 years, Prescott Bottling & Distributing Company has sponsored 2 Sun Drop cars and paid the registration for two kids to drive.  They also provide helmets and shirts for the event.
• Jonathan Acklen Fishing Tournament:  This tournament was started in 1991 to benefit scholarships at Franklin County High School and Huntland High School.
• Take a Kid Fishing Rodeo co-sponsored by Winchester, TN Bass Masters Club:  Prescott Bottling & Distributing Company is a sponsor as well for this event.  Kids are encouraged to team up with another adult fishing buddy and they are taken fishing to enjoy a day in the sun.
• This year, Sun Drop is a sponsor for the Bonnaroos Music & Art Festival in Manchester, TN

The list goes on and on, but it doesn’t shine a light on what the company does for its staff.  Prescott enjoys very little turnover because they treat each employee as a member of the family from medical and dental benefits, to quarterly dinners and tickets to the Tennessee Titans football games.  They enjoy Sun Drop for fifty cents a can… still.

In an email written by Pat Womack in Accounts Payable, Pat said “If one is sick, having different problems with either money or family all I have to do is say will you please pray for me or put me on your prayer chain at work and I know anybody I ask in this company would do that for me and not think it is stupid. We all care about each other and help each other out.”

Christy Davidson, the office manager, told me on the phone:  “this is a wonderful place to work. It’s like a small family.”   An example she gave me of how the family at Prescott pulls together was a story of a fellow employee who was undergoing treatment for cancer.  His office wasn’t on the ground floor, and having him walk up to his office would have been taxing on him, so his office was moved to the ground floor to make his life easier. Another example was of the owner, David Prescott, purchasing a case of each flavor of Girl Scout Cookies to help one of the daughters of an employee meet a goal.

It’s touching for me to hear stories such as these, unfortunately there aren’t many of them.  Prescott Bottling & Distributing Company started out as a humble distribution company and has expanded to offer some pretty serious competition among the citrus flavored sodas.  Rather than riding the shirt tails of their success, they are looking ahead to the future and pursuing further greatness with humility and discretion.