A century of soda: Ale-8-One’s formula to success

Tucked away in a back corner of Ale-8-One’s production facility in Winchester, Kentucky, at the top of a brown spiral staircase, behind multiple locked doors and an alarm system, lies the formula that creates Kentucky's beloved soda – and Fielding Rogers holds the only key. 

Rogers is the fourth-generation family member to run the Ale-8-One company. The 44-year-old chairman said his involvement with the company started at 6 days old when he was photographed in the

former Ale-8-One office.

“I got to see the building built when I was, I think, 8 years old,” Rogers said. “There’s a handprint over in the concrete and part of the parking lot over there, so how I got to be involved is that kind of self-explanatory way.”

Studying business at Washington and Lee University, Rogers said that he was never too far from the family company. 

During his summers in college, Rogers worked in the production facility, stocked shelves and helped with quality control. 

At the time, his father was president. Rogers said his father always included the kids in the family business practices, most importantly, climbing up the spiral staircase to create the “secret formula.” 

This formula has been essential to Ale-8-One for almost 100 years, which Rogers said is the key to producing every single original-flavored Ale-8-One drink that you will ever see.

“As kids, my brother, my sister and I, we would watch dad make up the secret formula,” Rogers said. “There is a secret room in the warehouse. There is only one key. It's behind a locked door, and another locked door, and alarm systems and all this.”

The founder, G.L. Wainscott, Rogers’ great-great-uncle, began the concept of Ale-8-One in 1902 when he started a company that made flavored bottled water, turning into what he called Wainscott's Flavors. 

Four years later, Wainscott created Roxa-Kola, named after his wife, Roxanne, which became his trademark for the majority of his career.

In 1926, Wainscott came up with the recipe for what would be Ale-8-One, and after entering it into a naming contest at the Clark County Fair, the soda’s name was born. 

“There are so many kinds of legends about Wainscott,” Rogers said. “I only kind of know the word of mouth stories … but apparently he was just a very interesting guy, very entrepreneurial spirit. I think he was one of those guys who just has an idea and then doesn’t think about it, he just does it.”

The recipe Wainscott formulated can only be made by Rogers or a member of his family, although he said that, because no other family members are working at the company now, he has produced the formula himself since 2003. 

“I think Dad had said, ‘It’s time for you to do it … the training wheels are off, it’s time to go mix it up,’” Rogers said. 

When he became CEO in 2013, it also meant Rogers was now responsible for the “secret formula.” 

“I’ve got these handwritten notes,” Rogers said. “The formula is the exact same formula; it’s just a very different scale.” 

The notes have the formula measured in drams and drops, something that had to be converted when the recipe was needed for mass production, Rogers said. 

“I had to look up what a dram was,” Rogers said. “That’s not a normal unit of measure in my world.”

Rogers said everything also has to be done with food safety and consistency in mind. There are food-grade machines that mix the ingredients, unlike the wooden paddle that Wainscott used. 

The formula itself is very potent, Rogers said, which means he only needs to go up the spiral staircase every few weeks to mix up a new batch. 

“You don’t need a lot of it,” Rogers said. “A little bit goes a long way. A drop of it will make about 16 bottles.”

Rogers said his path was always more directed toward working for Ale-8-One compared to his siblings, but there was never any pressure from family. 

“The family has always been like, ‘Do what you’d like to do,’” Rogers said. “I don’t think it was an expectation … we all got to pick, all the kids.”

Rogers took over from his father in 2009. He said his understanding of all the facets of the company came from working there all those summers.

“You get to interact with the fans and the consumers,” Rogers said. “You work in the grocery store, and so you've worked with the store managers. And then on the production side, you can see how it's made and … all the things that are important to make sure that the product always tastes great, and it's always consistent.” 

His summer jobs couldn’t encapsulate all the responsibilities he would have to undertake as chairman, Rogers said, which is why it was important for him to be open to change.

“When I showed up here, it was, well, sink or swim,” Rogers said. “Then it was drinking from a fire hose because learning the real business side of the business was completely different … I just try to keep an open mind … No one person can know it all.”

After nine years of being CEO, Rogers said he decided to give over control of Ale-8-One to the first non-family member, Ellen McGeeney. 

“The goal when I started as CEO was basically to … take all the things I’ve learned from working as vice president, and make (Ale-8-One) as resilient as possible,” Rogers said.

Rogers said he felt confident that it was time to exchange power, and he still maintains the most important job: handling the secret formula. 

“In about 2013, I decided, ‘OK, most of the work I think I'm good at, I’ve done. Now, I want to … take it to the next level, expand that team,’” Rogers said.

Coming up on the 100th anniversary of Ale-8-One, Rogers said he is proud that he has helped contribute to its legacy.

“I think (Wainscott) would be amazed (the formula) is still a secret,” Rogers said. “I think he would also be amazed that we do it in the kind of batches we do.”

Even though Rogers took a step back from the business side of Ale-8-One, he said his love for the company runs deep and the most rewarding part of his job is carrying on the dream that his great-great-uncle started. 

“I really just think of, you know, this is kind of his baby, and I think of myself as kind of a steward of the company for a generation,” Rogers said. “You wanna leave it better than you found it, so that is my goal.”

As for Rogers, he said he has no plans of turning over the secret recipe anytime soon or stopping the growth that he has started. 

“We are still a small company,” Rogers said. “We don’t have the big budgets of the big global guys. So, a lot of what we count on is word-of-mouth. So, we’re not gonna be buying any Super Bowl ads, but we want to take really good care of our brand, his (Wainscott’s) brand, and keep the fans growing.”