ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Tuesday, October 29, 1996              TAG: 9610290102
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: B-6  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON

PEPSI SAYS THANKS WITH A ROANOKE CAN

If you buy a can of Pepsi-Cola in the next few weeks, pay special attention to the label, because there's a message intended just for the Roanoke Valley. Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co. of New York has printed a special soft-drink can to mark the Roanoke Civic Center's 25th year of existence.

In the valley, "every supermarket is going to have these. Every vending machine," said Mike Dittrich, who manages the bottler's North Roanoke County plant. Some restaurants will have them, too, he said Monday.

The special cans cost the company a few thousand dollars, Dittrich said. The center does a lot of business with Pepsi. The civic center's food and drink vendor, Swanson Corp. of Omaha, Neb., has carried Pepsi rather than its rival Coca-Cola since at least 1991.

To help make the cans collector's items, the company made only 240,000 of them - enough, it figures, for every valley resident to have one.

A Pepsi commemorative bottle released four years ago, featuring retired race car driver Richard Petty, became a collector's item. Dittrich said he saw the 6-bottle set priced at $100. He isn't suggesting the civic center cans will attract that high a price.

The civic center plans a Nov. 17 celebration.

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