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Asa Griggs Candler bought a beverage recipe in 1888 and built it into Coca-Cola, one of the world's most recognized brands.
A pharmacist turned entrepreneur, he combined marketing instincts with business acumen to transform a local tonic into a national drink.
In 1888, businessman Asa Griggs Candler paid $2,300 for the Coca-Cola recipe from John Pemberton.
This investment—equivalent to $64,000 today—turned a local pharmacy drink into what would become the world's most recognized beverage brand.
Candler had already established himself in Atlanta's pharmacy business, operating a successful drugstore on Peachtree Street.
When he first tasted Pemberton's carbonated drink at his store counter, he noted its distinct taste, unlike anything on the market.
The drink sold modestly at first—about nine glasses per day at Pemberton's pharmacy.
But Candler recognized Coca-Cola was shelf-stable, easy to reproduce consistently, and appealed to both children and adults.
He wisely believed it had commercial potential.
He standardized the manufacturing process and implemented aggressive advertising campaigns in local newspapers.
Within four years, he had expanded distribution from one Atlanta pharmacy to soda fountains across Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee.
In 1891, when most business owners viewed advertising as wasteful spending, Asa Candler invested $11,000 of his early Coca-Cola profits into marketing—over $300,000 in today's dollars.
The typical Atlanta merchant spent less than $100 annually on advertising.
Candler ordered 45,000 calendars emblazoned with the red Coca-Cola logo in his first year alone.
He shipped metal serving trays to every drugstore that stocked his syrup.
Each month, his team painted fresh Coca-Cola signs on the sides of brick buildings across Atlanta, coating them in the signature Spencerian script.
While his competitors relied solely on newspaper listings of their tonics' medicinal ingredients, Candler crafted full-page advertisements showing smiling people drinking Coca-Cola at soda fountains.
He distributed coupons for free glasses of Coca-Cola—a revolutionary concept in the 1890s.
His marketing blitz worked.
By 1895, Coca-Cola was served in every state.
Annual sales jumped from 9,000 gallons of syrup in 1891 to 76,000 gallons in 1895.
The average American saw the Coca-Cola logo twelve times per day.
In drugstores that once stocked dozens of interchangeable cola drinks, Coca-Cola was now a star.
Customers walked in asking for Coca-Cola by name.
In 1900, 97% of Atlanta residents could recognize the Coca-Cola logo instantly.
Asa Candler stepped from the Coca-Cola boardroom into Atlanta's City Hall in 1916, becoming the new city mayor.
As mayor, Candler championed specific policies that split the city's population.
He enforced strict prohibition laws, shuttering saloons and arresting bootleggers, driven by his Methodist beliefs that viewed alcohol as a moral evil.
He also strengthened segregation ordinances, mandating separate facilities for Black and white residents and restricting Black neighborhoods to designated areas of the city.
In 1899, Coca-Cola president Asa Candler sold the exclusive bottling rights for one dollar.
A decision that cost the company billions in future revenue.
Candler believed bottled Coca-Cola would fail.
He worried that glass bottles would alter the drink's taste, and that inconsistent carbonation would damage the brand's reputation.
"Coca-Cola is a fountain drink," he reportedly told his staff. "It has always been a fountain drink and I hope it will always be a fountain drink."
That one-dollar contract went to Benjamin Thomas and Joseph Whitehead, two Tennessee lawyers who recognized bottling's potential to reach rural customers.
They built a network of independent bottlers that quickly proved Candler wrong—bottled Coca-Cola sales exploded across the American South.
By 1909, Candler found himself locked in legal battles to regain control of bottling operations.
The contract he had signed gave away perpetual rights, with no royalties or revenue sharing.
While Coca-Cola's syrup sales grew enormously thanks to bottling, the parent company earned nothing directly from bottle sales.
This arrangement persisted until 1978, when Coca-Cola finally began reacquiring its bottling operations.
In 1906, Asa Candler built the Candler Building in Atlanta.
The 17-story skyscraper rose from Peachtree Street, its white marble and terra cotta façade standing out against the city's modest skyline.
Few buildings in Atlanta reached above five stories at the time.
The Candler Building's limestone columns and bronze-framed windows showcased the cutting-edge construction techniques of the early 1900s.
Inside, brass elevators carried visitors past carved marble stairs and mahogany-paneled offices.
Candler spent $1 million on construction—equivalent to over $30 million today.
The skyscraper reshaped Atlanta's downtown.
Its electric lights illuminated Peachtree Street well into the evening, while its ground-floor shops drew crowds throughout the day.
Local newspapers called it "Atlanta's first true skyscraper," and businesses competed for office space inside what became the city's most prestigious address.
Candler placed his personal office on the top floor, overlooking the city.
After selling Coca-Cola in 1919, Asa Candler opened Central Bank and Trust Corp., trading his expertise in soft drinks for the unfamiliar territory of banking.
But Candler's timing proved disastrous.
In October 1929, the stock market crashed.
Bank customers rushed to withdraw their savings.
Central Bank and Trust Corp., like thousands of other banks across America, couldn't meet the surge of withdrawal demands.
The bank went bust permanently in 1930, taking much of Candler's fortune with it.
Asa Candler built his fortune on Coca-Cola, but he invested heavily in Georgia real estate.
Including his Candler Building—his land holdings spread across rural Georgia, where he purchased thousands of acres of farmland and commercial plots.
By 1919, his real estate ventures produced mixed results.
The Candler Building proved profitable.
However, several of his rural land investments failed to generate the returns he anticipated, particularly during the agricultural depression of the 1920s.
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