Picture St. Cloud in 1916. A horse pulls a wagon of glass soda bottles across town, and when the snow comes, the wagon trades its wheels for a sleigh. That little shop, Granite City Bottling Works, is where the Bernick’s story starts.
Fast forward 110 years and the same family is still writing it. On this episode of Behind the Brand, we sat down with Leah Bernick Sutherland, director of marketing at Bernick’s, a fifth-generation, family-owned beverage and food distributor headquartered in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
Here’s what Leah taught us about staying relevant for a century (and what it’s like when your boss is also your dad).
From Finance to Marketing, With a Few Stops Between
Leah has been with Bernick’s for 15 years. She started in finance, moved into marketing, sold on the soft drink side, spent time in vending, and landed back in marketing as director.
That route was on purpose. “Being part of the family, you want to learn as much as you can about all aspects of the business,” she told us.
Joining the family business was never a given. Her family didn’t pressure her, so Leah moved to Minneapolis after college and worked in finance and insurance before deciding to come home. “It was a great decision,” she said.
1916, a Horse and Sleigh, and a Bet on Pepsi
Leah’s great-great-grandparents bought that bottling shop and delivered within about 30 miles of St. Cloud, bottling their own Bernick’s brand of soda. The war years were lean; family lore has them sleeping on sacks of sugar in the warehouse so nobody would walk off with them.
During Prohibition, Bernick’s was one of the first bottlers to distribute “near beer.” (Yes, NA beer was cool before it was cool again.) Then came the Dr Pepper franchise, and in the early 1950s, Pepsi. The local Pepsi bottler was trying to give it away. Bernick’s said, all right, we’ll take it.
They never looked back.
How Pepsi Distribution Actually Works
Here’s the part that surprised our hosts. In the U.S., about 75% of Pepsi distributors are owned by corporate Pepsi and about 25% are independent bottlers. Bernick’s is one of those independents, with a territory that runs from St. Cloud down to Willmar and up through Duluth and the North Shore.
Bernick’s still calls itself a bottler, even though production now happens through WisPak, a co-op of about 35 independent bottlers based in Madison, Wisconsin. WisPak also makes its own brands, including Bubbler, which Leah helped develop and launch. (Her pick? Triple berry, hands down.)
A B2B Company That Markets to You
Bernick’s sells to liquor stores and grocery stores, never directly to shoppers. So why is most of its marketing aimed at the person pushing the cart?
“We want that brand awareness,” Leah explained. If shoppers want a product, they’ll go find it. The B2B side lives on the website, in emails, and in forms on the site.
Her team of about 10 includes one of the largest print shops among local independent Pepsi distributors. Five to six people turn out signage, banners, cooler wraps, and window clings for chains and locally owned stores alike.
Marketing That Speaks Central Minnesota
National teams run the Super Bowl ads. The local team knows Mountain Dew is huge in Minnesota and gets a shrug down South. So Bernick’s leans into how Minnesotans actually spend their time: lake life and fishing in the summer, hunting season in the fall.
They also run local sweepstakes, like the two Mountain Dew golf carts they gave away this summer. And they sample. A lot.
“You can have all the advertising in the world, but it’s hard to get them to buy a 12 pack of something they’ve never tried,” Leah said. Launching something new? Let people taste it first.
Sales and Marketing on the Same Team
With around 2,000 SKUs in the warehouse and several hundred brands, priorities matter. Leah’s team plans closely with the brand managers on the sales side, a role she once held herself.
Together they pick the lever for each brand: a sweepstakes, a better consumer price, or a sales incentive like prizes or cents per case.
Service is the other edge. Leah calls it Bernick’s big “do different,” and it’s a big reason customers stay loyal (friendly rivalry with “our red friends across the way” included).
Community Is the Strategy
If you’ve been to a fundraiser in Central Minnesota, you’ve probably seen the Bernick’s logo. Our hosts sure have, from the YMCA Promenade to 10 cases of water donated to a tiny school’s back-to-school event.
Leah gives her own time too. She sits on the Big Brothers Big Sisters board and marketing committee and has been involved with the Central Minnesota Women’s Fund’s Dancing with our Stars event for years.
Her take is simple: “Having a strong community only helps us.”
Protect the Dinner Table
Working with family has real perks. Leah gets time with her dad that most 40-year-old women never would. Calling him “dad” in a big meeting? Still a little weird.
The hard part is when work follows you to Saturday dinner. Disagreements feel heavier in a family business, so boundaries matter. The upside of that same table: “We always had dinner together,” Leah said, and the habit of sitting down to figure things out carries straight into work.
If You're Not Changing, You're Dying
That’s the line Leah’s dad repeats, and it’s the closest thing Bernick’s has to a 110-year secret. Consumer tastes have shifted more in the last five years than ever, toward functional and healthier drinks.
So Bernick’s keeps looking ahead. The team is digging into AI and scouting innovation brands like Once Upon a Coconut. Office staff even help stock store shelves during beverage “holidays” like the Fourth of July.
Leah’s rapid fire advice for you: show up in your community instead of waiting for opportunities to find you, and speak up early in your career. “Don’t be afraid to ask questions,” she said.
Tune In and Get Inspired
Leah’s story is a good reminder that a century-old brand stays relevant by changing on purpose and showing up for its neighbors. Even the Saturday dinner debates are part of the recipe.
Grab a Mountain Dew (or a triple berry Bubbler) and listen to the full conversation with Leah. You’ll hear how Bernick’s took a chance on Pepsi and get her rapid fire advice for showing up in your own community. Running a family business, or hoping to build one that lasts? This one’s for you.
