History

In 1936, Edward "Lefty" Meier received reward money for catching a bank robber and used it to purchase a used bottling machine. He and his wife Catherine Bruegge Meier set up the bottling plant in Catherine’s grandmother’s house where she previously operated a general store. Today the house has expanded into a modern soda bottling and craft brewery plant.  Edward passed away in 1996, but his wife Catherine continued to live in the house and do the bookwork until age 97. She passed away in 2009 at age 99. Excel remains one of the few independent family bottlers in the nation and is the only returnable bottling line remaining in Illinois. Although distribution has spread throughout southern Illinois and into the greater St. Louis area, people still pick and return their Ski soda at the Breese plant. As Catherine once said, "Eddie and I built our business one case of soda at a time." Her spirit lives on now through the third generation at Excel Bottling.