Cooperage Facility at Our Atlanta Headquarters

"Cooperage" is one of those words that most people would have trouble defining. What it refers to is the manufacturing of barrels. Back in the 1920s, the Headquarters of The Coca-Cola Company actually resided of the same piece of property that we occupy today, but in that earlier period, syrup manufacturing took place in the same complex that housed our administrative offices. As part of that production process, the syrup was packaged in oak barrels and distributed to our bottlers throughout the United States.

Because there was a constant need for a steady supply of these oak barrels, a group of employees, called coopers, assembled the barrels on site. The photographs below show elements of  the barrel construction in 1924.

Barrels used for Coca-Cola were stained red to differentiate them from whiskey barrels, and for many years, the Company had a sales publication called The Red Barrel dedicated to the soda fountain business.