Coca Cola has been refreshing Florence and the Shoals Area since 1908 when the Pratt family moved their business to Florence from a Sheffield location they had opened the previous year. Over the next forty years the family expanded their business and South Court Street facility before selling to the Matthews family in 1948. The Matthews family, operating as Coca Cola Bottling Company Southeast Incorporated, added the iconic neon Coca Cola signs which towered over the buildings and welcomed visitors to the Shoals from 1949 to 2004. Coca Cola Bottling Company Consolidated purchased the operation in 1998 and moved to industrial park in 2004 and continued distributing across North Alabama and Southern Tennessee for more than twenty years before selling the Florence operation to Coca Cola Bottling Company UNITED in October 2017.