How a 110-Year-Old Family Business Stays Relevant: Leah Bernick Sutherland of Bernick's

Takeaways

• Longevity comes from change. Leah's dad says it best: "If you're not changing, you're dying." Bernick's has stayed relevant for 110 years by always looking for the next thing.
• A B2B company can still market to the consumer. Bernick's sells to liquor stores and grocery stores, but most of its marketing builds brand awareness with the people who shop there.
• Community is the strategy. Showing up at events, donating, sponsoring, and serving on boards builds loyalty that national advertising cannot.
• Working with family takes boundaries. The closeness is the gift, and the tension that comes with it is real, so protect the dinner table.

Summary of the Episode

In this episode of Behind the Brand, Taylor and Kelly Kane of Moxie Creative sit down with Leah Bernick Sutherland, director of marketing at Bernick's, a fifth-generation, family-owned beverage and food distributor headquartered in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Bernick's is celebrating 110 years, and Leah has spent 15 of them there, moving through finance, marketing, soft drink sales, and vending before landing back in marketing.

Leah walks through the company story. In 1916, her great-great-grandparents bought a small soda bottling shop in downtown St. Cloud and delivered by wagon, or horse and sleigh in winter, within a 30-mile radius. Bernick's bottled its own soda, sold near beer during Prohibition, picked up Dr Pepper, and took on Pepsi in the early 1950s when the local bottler was trying to give it away. She explains how Pepsi distribution actually works, why Bernick's still calls itself a bottler, and how a co-op called WisPak handles production.

From there the conversation turns to marketing. Leah leads a team of about 10, including one of the largest print shops among independent Pepsi distributors, producing signage, banners, cooler wraps, and window clings. She shares how the team runs local sweepstakes (including two Mountain Dew golf carts this summer), tailors campaigns to lake life, fishing, and hunting season, and relies on sampling to get new products into shoppers' hands.

The hosts also dig into community giving, what it is really like to work with your dad, the values that carry from the family dinner table into the business, and how Bernick's is exploring AI and new brands. Leah closes with rapid fire advice on showing up locally and speaking up early in your career. Find Bernick's at bernicks.com, on Facebook and LinkedIn, on Instagram at Bernick's1916, and on TikTok.

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