Arthur J. Canfield, 84, who steered his father's local soft-drink company through decades of growth, withstanding pressure from behemoths like co*ke and Pepsi as other independent bottlers succumbed to corporate takeovers, died Monday, Aug. 28, at his home in Crete of heart failure, said his son Arthur.
A.J. Canfield Beverage Co., known in its later years for quirky flavors like Diet Chocolate Fudge, graced the shelves of local drugstores and grocery markets as an independent brand from 1924 until the company was bought by Select Beverages Inc. in 1995.
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Mr. Canfield's business strategy involved paying close attention to the latest beverage fads--adding and dropping flavors as they tickled or repelled tastebuds--and never overextending himself, said his son and his grandson Alan Canfield Jr.
A fiscal conservative who had lived through the Depression, Mr. Canfield paid for facility upgrades with cash and refused to go into debt. Through the mid-1970s, he insisted that cash equal to one week's payroll be kept in the bottling company's safe, just in case the banks failed.
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"He didn't want our employees to go without a paycheck," his grandson said.
When the family sold the company in 1995, about a decade after Mr. Canfield had retired as chairman, A.J. Canfield Beverage Co. was a household name in the Chicago area and one of the largest independent bottling companies in the nation, his son said.
In 1924, Mr. Canfield's father, for whom he was named, opened a storefront bottling company at 67th Street and South Chicago Avenue. A former railroad worker, the elder Canfield had been inspired by a ginger ale he had tasted in Canada, and also by local kids he saw sipping pop at a roller rink, the family said.
He started with a bottling machine that made one bottle of soda at a time. The younger Mr. Canfield pasted labels on the bottles. Like the scores of other bottling companies in the city, the Canfields sold their soda to local drugstores.
At age 25, Mr. Canfield took over the company after his older brother Frank died and his father suffered a stroke, his grandson said.
The company had just started to take off when World War II broke out, bringing with it the strict rationing of items such as sugar. After the war, the company embarked on a major expansion, which lasted for several decades. Its largest plant, at 50 E. 89th Pl., opened in the mid-1970s.
In the decades before its sale, the company began dabbling in unusual flavors as consumers' tastes became more sophisticated and the beverage market became brutally competitive.
"There wasn't anything that came along in terms of a fad ... that we didn't get into," said his son. "Anything that looked like an opportunity, we got into."
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The most popular Canfield flavors included 50/50, a mix of grapefruit and lime; and Diet Chocolate Fudge, which sold 200 million cans in 1985 after columnist Bob Greene lauded it in an article. The company had a few duds, as well, such as Anna-Banana and Mickey Rooney, a watermelon-flavored drink sponsored by the Hollywood legend.
The company picked up business as other small independents were squeezed out of the market, eventually selling its products in stores from Rockford to Joliet to Gary. The Canfield family also ran one of the largest private-label packing concerns in the country, producing supermarket-brand sodas for area chain stores.
But by 1995, the local field of more than 100 bottling companies had shrunk to five.
"We were the smallest of the five, so the writing was really on the wall," said his grandson.
Mr. Canfield was close with family members and active for years in the Independent Bottlers Association, but remained a private man throughout his life, his family said.
"[He was] very, very warm to people that he liked and trusted and surrounded himself with," said his grandson. "To people he didn't know, he came off as quiet, or stand-offish, or reclusive."
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Mr. Canfield also is survived by his wife Marge; another son, Alan, a daughter, Linda; six grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.
Visitation will be from 2 to 9 p.m. Thursday in Crete Funeral Home, 1182 Main St., Crete. Private services will be held Friday.
