Asa Candler was a successful
American business magnate and well known for founding the coca-cola company.
 |
Asa Griggs Candler |
Asa Griggs Candler was born on 30th
December 1851 near Villa Rica, Georgia, U.S.A. He was the eighth born of Samuel
and Martha Candler. Asa was born on his father’s farm and had small amount of
formal Education. He started school just before his fifth birthday and ended it
at age ten. Though his father was a successful merchant, the family were
devastated by the American Civil war which made life difficult for young Asa. At
age ten, he left school and spent time working on his father’s farm. He decided
not to go to college because he had planned to be a businessman.
Asa Candler wanted to
pursue business in medicine but had no money for medical school. In response he
decided to pursue the drug store business. He consulted two pharmacists in his
hometown, Doctor Best and Kirkpartrick, who employed him as an apprentice. Under
these pharmacists he learned the skill of drug prescription and production. Not
satisfied with his apprenticeship pay, he headed to Atlanta In 1873 with just
$1.75 in his pocket in search of better opportunities. At Atlanta, he was hired
by George Jefferson Howard to work in his drugstore. Asa later fell in love
with Howard’s daughter, Lucy Elizabeth, which Howard was against the
relationship. At this point Asa had a great interest of being his own boss. Asa’s
relationship with his boss started dyeing out which made him resigned to focus
on his own business. In January 1878, he got married to Lucy Elizabeth. Asa (at
age twenty-five) formed a partnership with Marcellus Hallman, under the name
Hallman and Candler to undertake a drug store business.
Candler commenced the
manufacturing of “blood balm” and perfume at the Hallman and Candler drug store. Candler eventually acquired the share of
his partner and became the sole owner of the drug store. Through this business
he got acquainted with a pharmacist, Dr John Pemberton, who invented the coca cola formula. In 1887, Asa bought the
formula of the syrup together with some proprietary rights at a cost of $2,300
from Dr John Pemberton. The name
coca-cola was suggested by Frank M. Robinson who was Dr. Pemberton’s
partner and bookkeeper. Asa then
started manufacturing the syrup in a small building in Atlanta. As the sale of
the syrup became a success Asa liquidated his drug store business in order to
focus on the manufacturing of the syrup. In 1892, Mr. Candler formed a
corporation named the Coca-Cola Company with an initial capital of $100,000.
On January 31, 1893 the trademark “Coca-Cola”
was registered in the United States Patent Office.
 |
Candler Building |
The Coca-Cola Company’s success
and popularity is attributed to Candler’s aggressive marketing of the product. In
1894, the first manufacturing plant outside Atlanta was opened in Dallas,
Texas. Asa promoted the trade mark aggressively through souvenirs, calendars,
clocks and other marketing media. He
improved the manufacturing process and soon coca-cola became a household name
in America making Asa a millionaire.
Asa invested most of his money in
real estate and also engaged massively in philanthropic activities. He donated over $1 million land as a gift to
Emory University in order for the school to move from Oxford to Atlanta.
On 1903 he purchased a land for
the commencement of the Candler Building at 127 Peachtree Street in downtown Atlanta which would house coca-cola
head office and the Central Bank and Trust Corporation. The building was completed in 1906 as the
tallest building in Atlanta at that time.
In 1916 he was elected as the 44th
mayor of Atlanta, Georgia ending his tenure of office in 1919.
In 1919, Candler sold the coca
cola company for $25,000,000 to a group of investors led by Atlanta businessman
Ernest Woodruff.
He died on March 12, 1929 out of
stroke.
No comments:
Post a Comment