Big 8 Beverages is a Canadian soft drinks company based in the town of Stellarton, Nova Scotia. Established in 1930 and owned by the Sobeys chain of supermarkets since 1986,[1] the company produces fizzy soda drinks of a wide range of flavours, and also bottles spring and distilled water.
History
The Big 8 brand name was created in the 1930s by Fenton and Day Beverages,[2] and is now owned by Sobeys.[3] Created in the 1930s by Fred Day and his brother-in-law George Fenton. They named their cola Big 8 after the eight-cent price for a bottle roughly a litre in size. Coca-Cola wanted to purchase Fenton and Day in 1946, but wouldn't pay what the owners thought the company was worth. Three months later 7-Up Maritimes offered the right price, founders Fenton and Day sold and retired. The Big 8 name stayed idle until Maritime Beverages, the 7-Up distributor for the Maritime provinces, gave the label and trademark to Sobeys free of charge in 1986.