# Hires to Canada!



## Canadacan (Dec 18, 2019)

I finally added a quart to my Hires line up! I don't think they are exceeding rare or anything like that, but just a little elusive!
My example is from 1962 made by Consumers glass, it has the short ingredients list on the back.
I'm also going to show @Moosecop 's example from Consumers, but his is dated 1961 and has the long ingredients list.
Both example are 26oz in size.










This is the long ingredients list version.


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## iggyworf (Dec 18, 2019)

Nice one. Congrats! I like the larger size bottles. Although they take up more space. lol


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## RCO (Dec 18, 2019)

i don't think that I've seen that size before , you see the smaller sized bottles around Ontario a fair bit . that size is definitely unusual , hires seemed to have pretty widespread distribution , not exactly sure why they got rid of it in the 90's 

one odd hires bottle I saw online a few weeks back was a small stubby bottle that someone in southern Ontario had posted online , hadn't seen one before but not surprised there was one


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## CanadianBottles (Dec 18, 2019)

I don't think I've ever seen a large version of that one before either.  Certainly can't be that common.  Nice find!
Also RCO did they get stop selling Hires that early in Ontario?  I'm almost certain I remember it well into the 2000s in BC.


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## RCO (Dec 18, 2019)

CanadianBottles said:


> I don't think I've ever seen a large version of that one before either.  Certainly can't be that common.  Nice find!
> Also RCO did they get stop selling Hires that early in Ontario?  I'm almost certain I remember it well into the 2000s in BC.



I'm not sure of the exact year they stopped selling it here ( I checked Wikipedia page for hires and its says 90's ) , they switched to " Mug " root beer at some point , I don't like that one at all and never buy it , hires was definitely better . 

they still sell it in the states so maybe there were some convenience stores selling US canned pop back then ? a lot of smaller stores in Ontario do that and have odd flavours you don't normally see 

 also have a couple hires cans in the garage , 2 are aluminum , likely from early to mid 90's and one metal one likely a bit older


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## RCO (Dec 18, 2019)

Hires availability in the US seems to be extremely limited and its not produced by many bottlers anymore , according to what I saw online 

you can buy 2 - 12 packs or 24 cans on amazon from $30 - $50 , I'm assuming that price includes shipping which might explain why it cost so much to get them shipped to Canada


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## Canadacan (Dec 19, 2019)

So I figured I may as well post up all my stuff! Starting with my oldest item, a 1920's Hires label from Chippewa Water co., Estevan Saskatchewan.
And my 12" Hires tin tacker, you can tell these are the earlier 1930's because the 'Hires' is kept within the circle...,later advertising expanded the 'Hires' to extend outside of the circle.


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## Canadacan (Dec 19, 2019)

Unfortunately I'm lacking in bottle examples from the 20's to the mid 40's . But at least I have one example of an RJ bottle from 1948....it's also a 12oz size! That seems to correspond with the standard 1930's-40's of having three sizes available.
As you can see they also introduced an 8oz size, this example has the check mark in a circle, I'm not certain what year that changed from RJ to check mark due to lack of examples...it's even possible there is an 8oz RJ.
Then there is a bit of a gap from 1950 to 57....so I can't narrow down the exact year that it went from check mark to the 1876 in a circle.
The carton is probably late 50's.





Almost forgot this unrolled sheet from the early 60's...I like how the tone matches the carton, this would have been a flat top can.
From about 1963




And here is an ad from Hires Root Beer- The Vancouver Sun, 16 May 1949, Mon, Page 7
It depicts the RJ bottle still at that time.




And this ad is from Nanaimo Bottling- Nanaimo Daily News, 31 May 1961 it has my 1964 bottle style. The carton pictured has stripes, hard to see, and is from just before the Hires-Crush merger.




Next up is my 1973 10oz. I'm not sure what year that bottle came in, again lack of examples and I've never really researched it, but my hunch says maybe about 1965.
One thing for sure is the NDNR label matched up with the can graphics, interesting bottle as is has a triple date code embossed!
The carton now has the Crush logo on it, the Crush/Hires merger happened in June of 1962. Interestingly most if not all Crush bottlers were the bottlers for Hires.
The paper label bottle design again shared the same graphic as the cans. And it would appear it was right around the early 80's when this graphic had changed.




So here we have two early 1980's aluminum cans, probably 1983-86. But not so ordinary because they are American made cans for Canadian market, the are marked 'Printed in the USA' but also have French print for the mandatory. This was the beginning of our transition back to 12oz cans!!!...sadly it spelt the end of the line for Canadian made cans. I consider them scarce.
The 300ml is interesting, the graphic puts it at early 80's and the glass confirms that with a date code of May/June 1982 from Domglass. Crazy part is the label states 'Printed in USA' in English and French.
Then the successor to Hires in Canada...., Mug Root Beer. This can is interesting because it was again a USA made can but complete with French print for Canada, probably from about 1983-86, the bottle I think is closer to the late 80's and its all USA markings.
So is it possible PepsiCo was importing it at the time? I say that because according to an article Jim Pattison sold Crush to Proctor and Gamble in 1984, later in 1989 it was sold to Cadbury Schweppes. I believe somewhere between 1985 to 1990 Hires was phased out in Canada.


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## Canadacan (Dec 19, 2019)

Almost forgot, more Hires cans! The first six are the sugar free from the mid 70's through to the mid 80's.
The regular cans are missing 3 early variations form the start of the 60's, so it picks up at the fourth generation from about 1965-66 and go to again the mid 1980's.


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## RCO (Dec 19, 2019)

i used to find those clear no deposit bottles all the time at one of my swim locations , never though they might of been Hires bottles at some point but now missing the paper label .


feel like I have one of those older  20's-30's hires bottles somewhere  , believe they have hires embossed on the bottom but nothing on rest of the bottle , could be in a box in the very cold garage


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## RCO (Dec 19, 2019)

these are the 2 aluminum hires root beer cans I had in the garage , didn't even realise the one was diet until I took a closer look at it . 

the diet can says it was made by crush Canada inc - Toronto , the regular can says it was made by Cadbury beverages Canada inc Mississauga  , pretty sure there from the 90's era

I think a lot of colour has faded off the second can , it appears there was red around the " words " root beer and on top although it still has a neat look to it 

the diet can appears to be closer to original but might have seen some fading too as they were both found outside , can't remember where I found the diet can but regular one was in a nearby wooded embankment and found a couple years ago


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## Eric (Dec 19, 2019)

Great examples there... I love Hires... started collecting it after I bought a Hires floor cooler (needs some TLC)
You've got a great looking collection.


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## Canadacan (Dec 19, 2019)

Eric said:


> Great examples there... I love Hires... started collecting it after I bought a Hires floor cooler (needs some TLC)
> You've got a great looking collection.


Thank you!....I've always collected the brand but never really buckled down and got serious about it. 
You don't see many Hires coolers!


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## Canadacan (Dec 19, 2019)

RCO said:


> these are the 2 aluminum hires root beer cans I had in the garage , didn't even realise the one was diet until I took a closer look at it .
> 
> the diet can says it was made by crush Canada inc - Toronto , the regular can says it was made by Cadbury beverages Canada inc Mississauga  , pretty sure there from the 90's era
> 
> ...



Cool!.. I have not seen those for ages!... So Proctor & Gamble bought Crush International in 1980 is my understanding but this must have taken a while to complete because the newspaper reported the sale in 1984...I may have missed 1980 articles in my search a couple of years back.
It seems the cans up to about 1980 were marked 'Crush International Limited' and from the early 80's to about 89 when P&G sold to Cadbury they were marked 'Crush Canada Inc.'...so 89 on they became marked 'Cadbury Beverages Canada Inc.'

 Crush Canada Inc. sold to Proctor and Gamble - The Province, 01 Mar 1984, Thu, Main Edition, Page 32


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## RCO (Dec 19, 2019)

there  is a picture of the second hires can on the can museum site , says its from 95 , the diet can is not posted to that site , but seems to be a couple years earlier as its marked crush not Cadbury 

seem to recall Hires being sold here in the mid 90's , think it often came in a mixed pack with crush , 6 hires cans , 6 orange crush , 6 cream soda crush and 6 grape crush . pretty sure I can recall seeing such packs at events and such back then . Hires was likely the only one I would of liked . 
actually never drank Crush as I find it way too sweet , so sweet it actually bugs my teeth , although may have been a lime crush flavour I had before , might of came in a plastic bottle ? recall liking that one


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## Canadacan (Dec 19, 2019)

RCO said:


> there  is a picture of the second hires can on the can museum site , says its from 95 , the diet can is not posted to that site , but seems to be a couple years earlier as its marked crush not Cadbury
> 
> seem to recall Hires being sold here in the mid 90's , think it often came in a mixed pack with crush , 6 hires cans , 6 orange crush , 6 cream soda crush and 6 grape crush . pretty sure I can recall seeing such packs at events and such back then . Hires was likely the only one I would of liked .
> actually never drank Crush as I find it way too sweet , so sweet it actually bugs my teeth , although may have been a lime crush flavour I had before , might of came in a plastic bottle ? recall liking that one


Maybe it took Cadbury a while to phase out Hires? I was just reading P&G bought Crush International in 1980 as I mentioned, but never acquired the Canadian assets until 1984...hence the news paper article. So then the name did change to Crush Canada Inc. because they had controlling interest obviously.
I was going through my pics and came across a cool add from the 70's it shows the 1.5 returnable bottle! The only 1.5 I have is a Pepsi dated 1975...with the swirl but same basic shape as these.


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## RCO (Dec 19, 2019)

I don't recall ever seeing either of those bottles , Sussex ginger ale is from New Brunswick so that ad is likely from the east coast 

the demise of Hires Root Beer in Canada is one of those things which now looks like a mistake . as I don't think the Mug root beer is very good and doubtful its ever been as popular as Hires was 

there is some sort of alcoholic hires product in cans at the liquor store but its Hires mixed with vodka , something about root beer and vodka seems off , wouldn't bourbon or whiskey seems like a more likely partner , I see these cans the odd time in parks here but don't think its that popular either 

the decision to stop producing it here seems like a mistake as its unclear what they gained by eliminating there most popular and well known root beer brand and by replacing it with a lesser known brand " mug " that if they got rid of and returned to Hires I doubt anyone at all would miss


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## WesternPA-collector (Dec 19, 2019)

Nice mint condition bottle! I enjoyed seeing all the other Hires items too!


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## Canadacan (Dec 19, 2019)

WesternPA-collector said:


> Nice mint condition bottle! I enjoyed seeing all the other Hires items too!


Thank you!...glad you like. It's great to get bottles in such nice condition


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## Canadacan (Dec 19, 2019)

RCO said:


> I don't recall ever seeing either of those bottles , Sussex ginger ale is from New Brunswick so that ad is likely from the east coast
> 
> the demise of Hires Root Beer in Canada is one of those things which now looks like a mistake . as I don't think the Mug root beer is very good and doubtful its ever been as popular as Hires was
> 
> ...



Yes that ad is an eastern item. I have tried Hires hard root beer a couple of times, it's definitely different!..I think JD would be a better combo than vodka!  
I'm not sure how Hires would do in todays market with Barq's and Mug out front, and A&W is readily available, then we have Orca Beverages out of Washington state bottling all the retro brands, Dad's, Frostie, Brownie, Ramblin,....they have about a dozen RB brands.
But I agree it would be great to see Hires make a come back!


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## RCO (Dec 20, 2019)

Canadacan said:


> Yes that ad is an eastern item. I have tried Hires hard root beer a couple of times, it's definitely different!..I think JD would be a better combo than vodka!
> I'm not sure how Hires would do in todays market with Barq's and Mug out front, and A&W is readily available, then we have Orca Beverages out of Washington state bottling all the retro brands, Dad's, Frostie, Brownie, Ramblin,....they have about a dozen RB brands.
> But I agree it would be great to see Hires make a come back!



true the competition in the soda market is very intense and less people are drinking sugary soda drinks than in years past due to health reasons and such

it only make sense to bring it back if they pulled Mug root beer and replaced it with Hires , then it automatically have a large market presence
as Mug is sold with pepsi drinks so anywhere that had pepsi would have Hires ( Harvey's , KFC , Pizza Hut , Subway, Boston Pizza ) a few examples

but then too , less people remember Hires , person would have to be at least 30 to remember drinking it , the younger crowd has never even heard of it


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## HouTxSoda (Dec 20, 2019)

I've always thought Hires had great looking ACL bottle.
Thanks for posting your Hires collectables, you have some excellent items.


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## Canadacan (Dec 20, 2019)

HouTxSoda said:


> I've always thought Hires had great looking ACL bottle.
> Thanks for posting your Hires collectables, you have some excellent items.



Thank you sir!.....Hires was my very first sign I ever got!, I picked this up way back around 1990...it's only a 80's item but I liked right when first I saw it! Forgot to post it!


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## RCO (Dec 31, 2019)

there is a Hires root beer cap on ebay , just noticed it , oddly says it for the Triangle bottling co ltd - Toronto Ont 

which I had never heard of before ever , I checked my book and there is in fact a listing in Toronto for the Triangle bottling co ltd but its from late 30's era and then disappears . 

maybe its that old ? I don't know and don't collect old bottle caps so never seen it before 












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## Canadacan (Jan 1, 2020)

RCO said:


> there is a Hires root beer cap on ebay , just noticed it , oddly says it for the Triangle bottling co ltd - Toronto Ont
> 
> which I had never heard of before ever , I checked my book and there is in fact a listing in Toronto for the Triangle bottling co ltd but its from late 30's era and then disappears .
> 
> ...



RCO yes that is the older style with the Hires inside the blue circle used for most of the 1930's, latter the Hires extended outside the blue...I'm not positive the exact year that took place....maybe 1940 or so.


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