<P> In December 1991, Coca - Cola Enterprises merged with the Johnston Coca - Cola Bottling Group, Inc . </P> <P> The first bottling of Coca - Cola occurred in Vicksburg, Mississippi, at the Biedenharn Candy Company in 1891 . The proprietor of the bottling works was Joseph A. Biedenharn . The original bottles were Biedenharn bottles, very different from the much later hobble - skirt design of 1915 now so familiar . </P> <P> It was then a few years later that two entrepreneurs from Chattanooga, Tennessee, namely Benjamin F. Thomas and Joseph B. Whitehead, proposed the idea of bottling and were so persuasive that Candler signed a contract giving them control of the procedure for only one dollar . Candler never collected his dollar, but in 1899, Chattanooga became the site of the first Coca - Cola bottling company . Candler remained very content just selling his company's syrup . The loosely termed contract proved to be problematic for The Coca - Cola Company for decades to come . Legal matters were not helped by the decision of the bottlers to subcontract to other companies, effectively becoming parent bottlers . This contract specified that bottles would be sold at 5 ¢ each and had no fixed duration, leading to the fixed price of Coca - Cola from 1886 to 1959 . </P> <P> The first outdoor wall advertisement that promoted the Coca - Cola drink was painted in 1894 in Cartersville, Georgia . Cola syrup was sold as an over-the - counter dietary supplement for upset stomach . By the time of its 50th anniversary, the soft drink had reached the status of a national icon in the USA . In 1935, it was certified kosher by Atlanta Rabbi Tobias Geffen, after the company made minor changes in the sourcing of some ingredients . </P>

The first bottling agreement with coca-cola took place in which city