Solo Beverages Limited - San Juan, Trinidad and Tobago

For Trinidad and Tobago, St. James was the birthplace of Solo. Identical 12-ounce glass bottles, each bearing a modernised version of the original design were eventually being produced locally, instead of being imported from abroad.
In 1949, Joseph Charles Bottling Works was moved from Panka Lane to the corner of White Street and Tragarete Road, where further factory developments began to get underway. Joseph bought some second-hand bottling machines designed to run at a speed of 72 bottles per minute. Within four years, through his ingenuity, he had the machines running at at an increased capacity of 144 bottles per minute. The company began to be run on a two-shift system, when an additional shift was incorporated. The number of employees amounted to roughly 110 people, with 54 being  

Show more

employed within the factory department itself and the rest being devoted to sales. Joseph Charles got where he did not just by ingenuity, but by hard work. He worked long hours, often commencing work at 4:00 am, with plant processes underway by 5:00 am so that by 5:30 am, trucks loaded with Solo beverages would be deployed to travel the rough, narrow roads of those days to deliver the soft drinks to groceries and shops even on the farthest parts of the island.
Ken Charles and his son, Hayden Charles, continue to strive to keep the tradition of a business that's all in the family. They are always seeking out ways to continuously increase levels of factory capacity and efficiency and will do so by continuing to integrate the latest technological advances into their production processes. Their plans for the future of Solo are to introduce the soft drinks to even more foreign diversified markets, and at present, there is an ongoing drive to achieve this market penetration.