Independent Spirit Drives Simpson Spring

At the turn of the 20th Century, Easton's Frederick Howard was approached about a business partnership by a growing carbonated beverage manufacturer.

The soda company, known as Coca-Cola, was intrigued by Howard's experimentation in carbonated beverages using pure water and natural juices at a plant in South Easton, Mass. Coke hoped to use his plant, located on a natural spring first used by the Assawompset Indian Tribe.

Howard, though, citing a desire for independence in developing his product, said "thanks, but no thanks."

It is the independent spirit, first displayed by Howard, that Simpson Spring still hangs its hat on today.

"Coke came to them and wanted them to bottle their product," said current Simpson Spring owner Chris Bertarelli. "The owners of Simpson, being what they were and still are – they’re very independent and they thought their product was better and they didn’t want to be dominated by anyone."

Coke's nationally recognized brand went on to become a major competitor for . The Easton company, incorporated in 1798, is now the oldest bottling company in the country.

When Chris’s husband Jim and his family purchased the company in 1988, they knew competing against large corporations like Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestle would not be easy. Marketing and sales - and even the purchasing of equipment has been made difficult by larger, nationally-known soda and water companies.

When it came time to buy a new soda-mixing machine in 1994, the Bertarelli's traveled to Italy just to find a machine. The only U.S. machines are built specifically for either Coke or Pepsi.

In local years, though, the local company is seeing a new-found interest in its home-made sodas.

"The soda – I’ll tell you - Its taking a resurgence," she said. "People are really interested in the soda. The history of Simpson has been – are we a soda company? Are we a water company? We love to stress pure fresh water but people sometimes get confused with the other companies when they don’t know there’s a difference. Whereas the soda - with the old fashioned flavors and no chemicals in the glass bottles - it tastes that much better."

Simpson Spring touts traditional flavors like cream soda and white birch, in addition to flavors like orange and grape from natural juices.

It's Simpson Spring's water, though, that comes with a certain mystique. Originally inhabited by the Assawompset Indians, the spring was said to have healing power.

"We have testimonial from a lot of doctors that originally thought the water healed a lot of ailments," Bertarelli said. "The owners seemed to bank on that but I don’t think they could prove it."

To this day, though, the Bertarelli's have found value in the freshness of Simpson Spring's products. All sodas and waters come from the natural spring located in Easton and they are all bottled locally.

"Its one source of water – one source of pure fresh water that basically can be coming from the spring and served at your dinner table that night," Bertarelli said. "It's not trucked anywhere. If you come to the spring, you can technically have water that’s from one source. If you look at a bottle from some of our competitors and look at the sources, some have eight or nine different sources listed there."

Loyalty to local customers and other local businesses has been a staple for Simpson Spring over the years. The business has partnered with other local companies like for private label distribution.

Buying local, Bertarelli said, is important for the entire community.

"It gives people a sense of community and it also helps other businesses prosper," she said. "If our business gets better then we’re able to go to the local sign company and buy another sign or we’re able to go up to Roache Brothers to buy more orange juice to make more soda. When people buy locally, we buy local as well. We don’t reach out to big companies."

She said the company has worked tirelessly to improve marketing and let Easton residents know about the soda and water. The plant, located on route 138, is open for free tours and the products can be found at a variety of places around Massachusetts.

While larger companies have dominated the market in recent years, Simpson Spring will continue to tout its quality as its number-one marketing stance.

"There’s so many people who live in Easton who do not know we’re here," Bertarelli said. "Business has improved through word of mouth, and we have a facebook page. But, there are people who just firmly believe the water is just of the best quality. I travel a lot and I cannot wait to come home and have a great glass of water."