Big 8 Beverages

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Big 8 Beverages
Big 8 Logo.png
Type Soft drinks
Distributor Sobeys
Origin Nova Scotia, Canada
Introduced1930;95 years ago (1930)
Website big8beverages.ca   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

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.

Contents

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.

Operations

Big 8 Beverages entered the water business in 1999 with the construction of a bottling facility in Stellarton. [4] The well owned by Big 8, where they extract their water, is located at 912 Salmon River Road in the community of Salmon River. The company has been approved to withdraw water from the well since 2002, with their approval allowing for the extraction of up to 650,000 litres of water per day until 2030. The province of Nova Scotia charges Big 8 an annual cost of CA$360.27 for the water they extract. [5] Concerns have been raised over the environmental and economic impacts of Big 8's high levels of water extraction for a low cost. [6]

Products

Big 8 Beverages sells 40 different products as of 2025, with 23 sodas and a variety of bottled water products. The design of Big 8's products was updated in 2025 with a similar colour scheme to Pepsi products, featuring a lighthouse and waves. [7]

References

  1. ↑ "Export Spotlight: Big 8 Beverages Ltd". Nova Scotia Business Inc. 26 March 2017. Archived from the original on 9 April 2016. Retrieved 22 May 2016.
  2. ↑ The Halifax Herald 1989
  3. ↑ "Big8 - Corporate Structure". Sobeys Inc. Archived from the original on 4 June 2008.
  4. ↑ "Sobeys launches Big 8 spring water". Telegraph-Journal . 27 May 1999. p. 13. Retrieved 21 November 2025– via Newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ Baxter, Joan (2 January 2024). "Nova Scotia is practically giving away 'some of the purest water in Canada'". Halifax Examiner (Part 1). Retrieved 21 November 2025.
  6. ↑ Baxter, Joan (2 January 2024). "What are the environmental costs of bottling and exporting Nova Scotia's groundwater?". Halifax Examiner (Part 2). Retrieved 21 November 2025.
  7. ↑ Myrer, George (8 July 2025). "Sobeys-owned Big 8 honours the East Coast with its updated look". The Chronicle Herald . Halifax, N.S.: Postmedia Network . Retrieved 21 November 2025.
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