 The Royal Club logo | |
| Product type | Soft drink brand |
|---|---|
| Owner | Heineken International |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Website | www |
Royal Club is a Dutch brand of soft drinks and juices, mainly targeted at adult consumers. In commercials Royal Club products are presented as "drinks with a bite" for people with distinct preferences. [1]
The brand was originally owned by N.V. Handelsmaatschappij v/h J.C. Tims (Rotterdam). Tims produced three different flavours under the brand name Royal Club: tonic water, ginger ale and soda water. It is not clear when Tims started producing these soft drinks. In a 1953 advertisement Tims claimed the brand name had been in use since 1912 by Josiah Russell & Co., an English owned soft drinks company in Rotterdam-Hillegersberg. The latter company was officially taken over by Tims in 1949. Josiah Russell & Co. had a pre-war product called Club Tonic. [2] It therefore seems plausible that the prefix 'Royal' was introduced by Tims in 1949 or shortly thereafter.
In 1969 Tims was taken over by the much larger Heineken-owned soft drink company Vrumona. [3] Vrumona soon decided to extend the Royal Club product line. In 1971 three fruit based bitter soft drinks were added to the product line. One of these flavours, Royal Club bitter lemon, proved to be a big hit while the other two (bitter orange and bitter soda) were quickly discarded. Another hugely successful soft drink launched under the Royal Club brand name was shandy (1976). This product was aimed at responsible drivers who wished to abstain from drinking beer but fancied something with a beerlike taste. At that time alcoholfree beers were hardly available in the Netherlands. In the late 1970s Royal Club Shandy was also a favourite drink among kids who were not yet allowed to drink beer. Royal Club Shandy is still being produced today, though its alcohol content (0.5%) is half of what it used to be (originally 0,9%, later 1%). In 2020 the Royal Club product line was extended with a ginger beer, that has a slightly cloudy appearance and a spicier flavour than Royal Club ginger ale.
In 1987 the brand name Royal Club was also attached to a product line of juices, previously marketed by Vrumona under the brand name B3. In 2001 Vrumona had to recall all 1 liter glass bottles Royal Club Fruits de Pays orange juice. These bottles contained too much yeast, thereby enhancing the risk of explosion. [4]
On its website Vrumona claims that the Royal Club brand was launched in 1939. In recent years the phrase "since 1939" has also appeared on all Royal Club labels, cans, packaging and display materials. In 2018 even a line of "natural sodas" in one-way single serve bottles was introduced under the name Royal Club 1939, with the year typefaced most boldly on the labels. This claim for 1939 is derived from the Benelux Trade Marks Register which states that the word brand Royal Club was registered in 1939. There has however never been presented any factual of physical proof (in the form of bottle labels, crown corks, advertisements, etc.) of pre-war Dutch soft drinks under the brand name Royal Club.
Ginger ale is a carbonated soft drink flavoured with ginger. It is consumed on its own or used as a mixer, often with spirit-based drinks. There are two main types of ginger ale. The golden style is credited to the Irish doctor Thomas Joseph Cantrell. The dry style, a paler drink with a much milder ginger flavour, was created by Canadian John McLaughlin.
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Bickford's Australia Pty. Ltd. is an Australian beverage manufacturer based in South Australia. The brand produces traditional cordials, soft drinks, and iced coffee mix originally manufactured by A. M. Bickford & Sons, a pharmaceutical chemist founded by Anne Margaret Bickford in 1864. In 1999, the brandname was acquired by the Kotses family and later renamed Bickford's Australia, after which the brand saw a revival in popularity with the introduction of new flavours and products. In 2006, Bickford's lime juice cordial was recognised by the National Trust of South Australia as a Heritage Icon.
Big 8 Beverages is a soft drinks company based in the town of Stellarton, near New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Canada. Established in 1986 and owned by the Sobeys chain of supermarkets, which is also headquartered in Stellarton, the company produces fizzy soda drinks of a wide range of flavours, and also bottles spring and distilled water.
Josiah Russell, was a manufacturer of sodas and mineral waters from London. Products of Josiah Russell were exported to Australia, South-Africa and several other countries. By 1881 his products were also available on the Dutch market. Among these products were tonic and ginger ale, flavours hitherto almost unknown to Dutch consumers. In 1887 Josiah Russell opened a second factory in Rotterdam. Little is known about the life of the entrepreneur Josiah Russell. His obituary and census data indicate that after his retirement Josiah Russell returned to his native town Bexhill, where he lived at his brothers house and died in 1911.
