Leading Pepsi bottler operating in 3 states names new CEO

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - An Alabama-based Pepsi bottler that operates in three states has named its first chief executive outside the family that owns it in 120 years.

Buffalo Rock Co. of Birmingham said Matthew Dent is taking over as CEO. He will succeed Jimmy Lee III as the first head of the company outside the Lee family.

Buffalo Rock is the nation’s largest private, family-owned company that bottles Pepsi and Dr Pepper with more than 2,100 employees in Alabama, western Georgia and the Florida Panhandle.

Dent started as an intern 25 years ago in the Tuscaloosa division of Buffalo Rock while he was a student at the University of Alabama, al.com reported.