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History Behind the Name

Henry Millis founded the Clicquot Club Company in 1881 with money he received from his father, a retired railroad baron, Lansing Millis, in Millis Massachusetts – a small town named after his family.   

The bottling operation started with a product similar to sparkling cider and later expanded to include other flavored beverages.  His ginger ale would become famous for it rich aged flavor.  In addition to the ginger ale the product line included birch beer, root beer, colas, and fruit flavored products.  

Millis believed his soft drinks should be the finest and didn’t spare any expense when brewing beverages.  The ingredients used were at the time some of the costliest commodity items around.  He imported such items as pure cane sugar from Cuba and rich Jamaican ginger, the finest vanilla found in Central America and spices from the gold coast of west Africa. Ultimately all his efforts would lead the Clicquot Club name to become a hallmark of quality. 

His products stood out in the crowded early regional soft drink market becoming the dominant seller of beverages in the Northeast.  With word-of-mouth -- the most powerful marketing tool of the day -- word spread from town to town as products began to show up on store shelves in Boston, Providence, and eventually larger markets in New England, including New York.  The quality and rich flavor of his aged soft “ale” and other carbonated beverages set the standard to which other strived to achieve. 

At around the turn of the century, the high cost of Millis’ choice ingredients and distribution expenses took its toll on the company.  Facing an uncertain financial future Millis sold Clicquot Club to new owners in 1901.  The new owners were apt at taking advantage of new fangled marketing techniques of the early 1900's.  They quickly worked to expand the brand by using slick and bold advertising which spoke to the high quality and luxury of the product which the newly emerging working class was quick to appreciate. 

With the new sophisticated advertising campaigns came the need to modernize the breweries in a way that didn’t change the quality of the product.  Clicquot Club's brewing techniques were amongst it's most valuable assets.  They were all trademarked and guarded to prevent competitors from learning of Millis’ unique process. 

Once they figured out how to modernize the brewing process, Clicquot Club began pushing their products into new and growing markets as quickly and as vigorously as possible.  This meant that along with the advertising campaign which featured new bottles, labels, and print ads the owners had to update both there packing and distribution process. 

During the roaring 20’s Clicquot Club continued to innovate, it began embracing new forms of advertising.  In the "hey" days of the new marketing era,  which was just beginning, nearly everybody had something to sell and a new way of getting their message across.  Clicquot Club strived to stand out in the crowd.

Clicquot Club was at the forefront of many of the new ways to reach consumers; among them tin store signage, point-of-purchase marketing material,  color advertising in magazines, full-page newspaper ads, billboards reaching out to thirsty motorist on the new thoroughfares linking the nation, and distributing a host of novelty items to gain an even bigger customer base. Clicquot Club reached out in new ways, in ways never seen before.  They went as far as to feature a touring jazz band the “Clicquot Club Eskimo’s,” named after it’s namesake, Klee-Ko the Eskimo, featured in all it's marketing material.

By the late 1930’s the ever quickening pace of sales forced the expansion of its factory in Millis and the addition of its own private railroad yard.  However, the hectic pace of expansion simply wasn’t enough to meet demand more factories were need.  The public’s appetite for Clicquot Club products was out of control. Innovation was once again the key to cut bottling and distribution costs.  This innovations allowed Clicquot Club to expand into new markets.

In 1938 Clicquot was the first beverage company to distribute its products in a can.  The tin cans were lighter and less fragile than the traditional glass bottles so it was safer and more importantly cheaper to transport.  This meant products could now be economically shipped further distances resulting in greater market penetration, something it competitors couldn't achieve. However, adopting this new technology didn't pay off in the end.  It would take many more years to create a can really suitable for use with carbonated beverages. 

The increasing demand for its products forced Clicquot to adapt new distribution methods and by the early 1950’s Clicquot Club products were being bottled in over a 100 plants in a vast system throughout the United States reaching from the northern borders to the Gulf of Mexico and from coast to coast, including several plants in Minnesota, one right here in Seward.  In addition to the plants in the United States Clicquot established bottling plants in the Bahamas, Jamaica, The Philippines, and even South America becoming a truly international company. 

The end of the Clicquot Club’s glory days came with increased competition from beverage bottlers working diligently to satisfy an ever more fickle consumer. 

Like its proud but less innovative competitor Moxie Cola, the once dominant soft drink company, Clicquot Club products literally where crushed by an appropriately named beverage, “Orange Crush.”  By the 1960’s Crush had become the world’s favorite bottled soft drink relegating Clicquot Club, Moxie and many others to become great brands of the past.  To this day, "Crush" is still one of the dominant beverage brands worldwide. 

By 1960 Clicquot’s Connecticut neighbor and competitor Cott Beverage Corporation had taken over ownership of the Clicquot Club brand and its many bottling facilities.  In 1965 the Cott family sold its company to Canada Dry leading to the end of the Clicquot Club name and the operation of the original Millis’ bottling plant.    

Crush would eventually be taken over by it's rival 7-Up in an effort to protect the brand from the same fate as many of its earlier rivals .  

The creation of 7-Up in itself was a result of "Orange Crush" dominating the beverage landscape.  7-Up's creator Charles Leiper Grigg who had created 2 successful orange flavored beverages (Whistle and later Howdy!) thought the only way to compete with Crush was to sell a new and unique flavored beverage, a lemon-lime beverage.  The company he founded would later acquire not only the Crush brand but also Dr. Pepper, the oldest soft drink brand, and several others to become one of the top 3 soft drinks bottlers in the world.   

 

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