Sledge reflects on family-owned Cleveland business
On March 10, Nehi Bottling Company in Cleveland celebrated its 98th year in business. The venerable family-owned operation has stayed the course and remained competitive in a very tight market over the years.
“My grandfather started this business in 1927 and I honestly can’t imagine what was going through his mind back then,” said Homer Sledge, III, the company’s President since 2021. “However, I do know that he, my grandmother, and my father are all smiling down on us today from heaven. My father worked up until he was 93 years old, a year before his death, and this is his and my family’s legacy. I’m proud to carry it on.”
Growing up around the business, Sledge naturally has a lot of amusing and interesting stories revolving around the company’s history. One in particular sticks out in his mind.
“I called Dad when I graduated from Ole Miss in 1992,” recalled Sledge. “It was on a Monday or Tuesday, just a few days before I officially got my degree. I told him that a few of us were thinking about going to Destin after graduation and then I’d be back in Cleveland to go to work. He was quiet for a while. After a few moments he said, ‘Son, you graduate on Saturday, so you get down here and start work on Monday. What you do between then is up to you. And don’t forget to unpack your apartment, too.’ That was just like him,” laughed Sledge.
Sledge, who has actually worked at the family business ever since he was a child, said he loves the work he does. “Sure, there are tough days, just like in any other business,” he said. “But I get over problems fast—I don’t dwell on them. A bad day turns into a good one the next. My Dad used to always say you have to be optimistic and he was right.”
Nehi Bottling Company employs 20 people in its Cleveland facility, including Sledge. “We have a core group of people here who are just outstanding,” he said. “James Therrell has been with us for 44 years, Jeff Mullins has been with us 28 years—we really have a fantastic group of folks here. Even the people who have worked here at Nehi five years or so give you the sense that they’ll be around for a while, too.”
Sledge said it’s still hard to believe the company his grandfather started is 98 years old and that he has “officially” been an employee for 32 of those years. “I worked here at the facility growing up during the summers,” said Sledge. “In fact, Mike Kennison—now Delta State’s Athletic Director—worked with me one summer separating returned bottles. And let me tell you, that was hard, long and tedious work!”
A look around the company’s office is like taking a trip through a time capsule. The walls are filled with photos, newspaper and magazine articles, awards and other memorabilia from the past 98 years.
“Homer Sledge, Sr., my granddaddy, started production on March 8, 1927 and the first trucks went out with product two days later,” said Sledge. “The next month, the levee broke in Scott, Mississippi which started the great Delta flood. Then, of course, the Great Depression started in 1929. I remember as a young man, working here during the summer, talking with my granddaddy about those times. I often wish he was here to see where we are now.”
Sledge recalled something his father, Homer Sledge, Jr., told him one day in the very office his son occupies now. It was a story Sledge related at his father’s funeral.
“He looked at me across his desk and said, ‘One day, you’re going to wish I was still here.’ I asked him why he said that and he answered, ‘Because I often wish your grandfather was here for me to talk to and get advice from and ask what he thought about things.’ And, honestly, I do that; I do wonder what my dad would do in a given situation sometimes.
“It’s funny,” continued Sledge. “My wife, Susan, will often tell me, ‘You’re acting just like your father!’ So, maybe he rubbed off on me. In fact, I know he did. I was with him longer than I’ve been with anyone else, 10 to 12 hours a day. And he was a military man who did things by the book. There was a process to how he conducted business and that was the law. He actually reminded me a lot of Coach Nick Saban in his approach to the way things were run around here.”
Sledge said he has his own management style, but the lessons he learned from his father and grandfather have stayed with him and still provide valuable guidance and insight.
Covering Bolivar, Coahoma, Tallahatchie, southern Quitman and northern Sunflower Counties, Nehi Bottling Company handles many brands such as Dr. Pepper, RC (Royal Crown cola), Nehi, Sunkist and Evian Water. “I remember coming back from a ski trip in Vail, Colorado and telling dad that we really needed to get in the bottled water space,” recalled Sledge. “He told me that I was the biggest idiot in the world! I still laugh about that. It’s now one of our biggest sellers, along with Deja Blue and Core water. We sell a ton of it.”
Would Sledge’s grandfather think the company could ever be on the verge of entering its 100th year of business? “No,” answered Sledge. “When we celebrated our 90th, it was a big to-do, and dad’s goal was always to get to 100. So maybe he had an idea we could and probably would make it, but granddaddy? Who knew what the future held?”
Sledge said Dr. Pepper is king in his business but that RC is a close second and Nehi Peach is a surprise favorite. “We get calls from Chicago, Milwaukee, Seattle—all over the country—asking if we can ship them Nehi Peach,” chuckled Sledge. “We’re not set up to do that, but people have actually driven here to Cleveland to load up on it! It’s amazing.”
What’s really amazing is the fact that Homer Sledge, III is leading his family’s business—Nehi Bottling Co.—towards a century of service and success. “There are only a few, family-owned companies like us still around today,” he said. “We’ve been approached to be bought out before—even my day was approached. But, you have to work. There’s a purpose in a hard day’s work. I’m looking forward to hitting 100 years.”