# Zero Bottling Works, Winnipeg, Manitoba



## Canadacan (Sep 16, 2018)

I finally added a 6.5 oz Zero to my collection!.. been waiting a long time for one this nice, so many are bruised and badly worn. I love the slender fluting of this art deco era bottle, and the embossed angled ZERO. There is no makers mark or date code but is marked Design Registered 1928. 
I have one other from Zero and it's a beautiful green 30oz ACL with a graphic to die for!


----------



## Screwtop (Sep 16, 2018)

Awesome!


----------



## RCO (Sep 16, 2018)

I've seen the embossed zero bottle online before but don't really know much about it , never seen the 30 oz before 

Winnipeg was fairly big and a central city for that area , so not surprising it had a number of different bottlers


----------



## CanadianBottles (Sep 16, 2018)

Cool art deco!  Looks like it's a custom design as well, not a generic.  And that ACL has some great graphics as well!  I don't remember seeing either before.


----------



## Raypadua (Sep 17, 2018)

I'm hoping to pick up some Zero Bottling Company bottles too especially since they are local for me!

Zero Bottling Works started in Winnipeg in 1929 and continues through the 60's.  They also took over the Wishing Well Soft Drink Company if you happen to find any of those bottles as well.  They have a nice spiral shaped body.


----------



## CanadianBottles (Sep 17, 2018)

Yeah the Wishing Well bottles I see quite frequently.  I'm pretty sure they distributed across Canada.  I'm guessing Zero took over the local Wishing Well plant, not the entire brand, right?  The Wishing Well bottle I have is marked National Dry, and I think they lasted until quite recently.


----------



## iggyworf (Sep 17, 2018)

Those are both very nice!


----------



## CreekWalker (Sep 17, 2018)

They're great, glad you found them!


----------



## Canadacan (Sep 17, 2018)

Raypadua said:


> I'm hoping to pick up some Zero Bottling Company bottles too especially since they are local for me!
> 
> Zero Bottling Works started in Winnipeg in 1929 and continues through the 60's.  They also took over the Wishing Well Soft Drink Company if you happen to find any of those bottles as well.  They have a nice spiral shaped body.


Hey Raypadua what part you from?...I have a couple of friends out there!.. A couple of other Winnipeg brands I have, but not many bottles from are Lee's and Arctic...both both great graphics.
I have quite a few of the Wishing Well bottles.


----------



## Canadacan (Sep 17, 2018)

CanadianBottles said:


> Yeah the Wishing Well bottles I see quite frequently.  I'm pretty sure they distributed across Canada.  I'm guessing Zero took over the local Wishing Well plant, not the entire brand, right?  The Wishing Well bottle I have is marked National Dry, and I think they lasted until quite recently.


Yea definitely a national brand, I'm not sure who distributed out west. I had a hard time locating adds for Wishing Well, but have one dated 1941 and Zero was the bottler at that time already in Winnipeg.
I know it was still being caned by the mid 70's because I have 2 early stay stab cans in Oz/mls, and it was still under National Dry, I'm thinking Pepsi took them over?...but I can't remember for sure, I had that info in my old brain at one time!


----------



## Raypadua (Sep 18, 2018)

I'm from Winnipeg Canadacan!

According R.E. Stock's book - "A History of Carbonated Beverages in Winnipeg"

"The Wishing Well Soft Drink Company started in Winnipeg in 1938, and was located at 1325 Portage Avenue.  Wishing Well soft drinks were actually a product of the National Dry Limited, an eastern company.  The bottling and distribution was taken over by Zero Bottling Works , in Winnipeg.

It goes on to say Zero Bottling Works started in Winnipeg in 1929, and was located at 85 Euclid Street.  In 1930, Zero moved to 90 Lorne Avenue.  Zero Bottling Works remained at this address until the 1960's."

So, Canadian Bottles, from the above I would imagine Zero took over ALL of the bottling and distribution of Wishing Well nationally even though it was a product of National Dry.   Does that make sense?   Do your other wishing Well bottles have any locations other than Winnipeg on them?


----------



## Raypadua (Sep 18, 2018)

RCO said:


> I've seen the embossed zero bottle online before but don't really know much about it , never seen the 30 oz before
> 
> Winnipeg was fairly big and a central city for that area , so not surprising it had a number of different bottlers



Apparently there were almost 40 bottlers of carbonated beverages operating in Winnipeg at various times from the 1870's onward!!!  Many more if you include other Manitoba cities like Brandon and Selkirk.


----------



## HouTxSoda (Sep 19, 2018)

Here is some similar artwork from a Conroe Texas soda :


----------



## Canadacan (Sep 19, 2018)

HouTxSoda said:


> Here is some similar artwork from a Conroe Texas soda :



Wow great bottle!!!...thanks for sharing, so is that a pretty in demand bottle in Texas?


----------



## Canadacan (Sep 19, 2018)

Raypadua here is that add from 1941 for Wishing Well by Zero bottling.


----------



## CanadianBottles (Sep 19, 2018)

Raypadua said:


> So, Canadian Bottles, from the above I would imagine Zero took over ALL of the bottling and distribution of Wishing Well nationally even though it was a product of National Dry.   Does that make sense?   Do your other wishing Well bottles have any locations other than Winnipeg on them?


No that's not how it would have worked, Stock means that they took over bottling and distribution for that location.  Nation-wide distribution out of one factory wasn't really done in those days... or even today, apart from the odd independent bottler.  It was probably a franchise bottled by different local bottlers across the country, with Zero handling bottling and distribution for Manitoba.  To my knowledge the Wishing Well bottles were never marked with local bottlers, just with National Dry on the base.  Most national brands in Canada didn't have different markings for different cities, the main exception being 7-Up.


----------



## Canadacan (Sep 19, 2018)

CanadianBottles said:


> No that's not how it would have worked, Stock means that they took over bottling and distribution for that location.  Nation-wide distribution out of one factory wasn't really done in those days... or even today, apart from the odd independent bottler.  It was probably a franchise bottled by different local bottlers across the country, with Zero handling bottling and distribution for Manitoba.  To my knowledge the Wishing Well bottles were never marked with local bottlers, just with National Dry on the base.  Most national brands in Canada didn't have different markings for different cities, the main exception being 7-Up.



I concur, they only looked after Winnipeg and maybe some of the surrounding area, I'm sure other small towns bottled it independently as well, tp my knowledge none of the embossed Wishing Well bottles are marked, the two ACL's I have are marked National Dry- London, Ont.
As CC stated the exception being 7up...the only other brands I can think of that have a couple of cities would be , Suncrest, Mission, Jamaica Dry, Wynola, 2-Way, and Kist....possibly Nugrape had a few?...Coke only 4?
But for sure 7up has quite a few...how many?..I'm not sure but I was documenting that at one time!..lol


----------



## Canadacan (Sep 20, 2018)

Another interesting thing is Zero was a Smile bottler as well...that was pretty early and I don't know how long they bottled it. I have a Smile bottle and it was in my trade bottles...assumed it was an Ontario item only, but now with this new information I'll be adding it to my Manitoba/Zero collection!

And it would appear that Zero became the exclusive bottler for Red Rock Cola in 1946!


Zero Bottling Works-The Winnipeg Tribune, 20 May 1932, Fri, Page 23


6.5oz Smile- Dominion glass- possible 1946


Zero Bottling Works-Red Rock Cola-  The Winnipeg Tribune, 7 Mar 1946, Thu (2)


----------



## Raypadua (Sep 20, 2018)

That's fantastic info!  Someone here is selling a case of Wishing Well bottles in a Zero/Red Rock Crate.  $200 so I just get to look at it 




Love the Smile bottle!!!  Haven't seen one of those around here yet. Off to hunt some down!


----------



## CanadianBottles (Sep 20, 2018)

Canadacan said:


> As CC stated the exception being 7up...the only other brands I can think of that have a couple of cities would be , Suncrest, Mission, Jamaica Dry, Wynola, 2-Way, and Kist....possibly Nugrape had a few?...Coke only 4?
> But for sure 7up has quite a few...how many?..I'm not sure but I was documenting that at one time!..lol



There are a few others... Mr., Delaware Punch, and Tall come to mind.  I'm sure I'm missing some but can't think of any others off the top of my head.  There were a number of really small franchises that never took off, and those are more likely to be marked than the national brands.

Edit: Nesbitt's as well.


----------



## HouTxSoda (Sep 25, 2018)

Canadacan,

Unfortunately for me that Arctic bottle from Conroe is fairly common. It seems the bottling works just shut down 1 day and left everything where it was, so those bottles got scattered wide and far.


----------

