A&W Root Beer is a root beer brand primarily available in the United States and Canada, started in 1919 by Roy W. Allen. In 1922, Allen partnered with Frank Wright. They combined their initials to create the brand "A&W" and inspired a restaurant chain, founded in 1922. A&W root beer drinks sold for five cents.

Outside Canada, the rights to the A&W brand are owned by Dr Pepper Snapple Group, which in turn licenses the brand to the similarly named U.S.-based restaurant chain; A&W products are distributed via various U.S. bottlers. A&W Food Services of Canada, which is independent of both DPSG and the U.S. chain, is responsible for the restaurants and the marketing of root beer products in that country, with retail products bottled and distributed by The Coca-Cola Company. The U.S. variant is also sold as an import drink in Southeast Asia and Italy (where A&W has restaurants), as well as Australia, the United Kingdom, and Chile, among other countries.

History

On June 20, 1919, Roy W. Allen opened a roadside root beer stand in Lodi, California, using a formula he purchased from a pharmacist. He soon opened stands in Stockton, California, and five stands in nearby Sacramento, home of the country’s first drive-in featuring "tray-boys" for curbside service. In 1920, Allen became partners with Frank Wright and the two combined their initials and called their product A&W Root Beer. A mistaken notion is that the initials were derived from Alice and Willard Marriott. This mistake arose owing to Marriott's first business, an A&W franchise

A&W may refer to:

A&W Food Services of Canada, Inc. is a Canadian fast food restaurant chain.

A&W Canada was part of the U.S.-based A&W Restaurants chain, but was sold to Unilever in 1972, and then bought by its management in 1995. It no longer has any corporate connection to A&W operations outside of Canada.

The Canadian operation is owned and operated by the privately held A&W Food Services of Canada Inc., based in North Vancouver, British Columbia. In December 2013, A&W was Canada's second-largest Quick Service Restaurant burger chain with 800 outlets after McDonald's 1,400 outlets.

History

The first Canadian A&W restaurant opened in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1956. The Canadian restaurants were part of the American chain until 1972 when they were sold to Unilever.

In 1975, facing competition from the growing Canadian operations of McDonald's, the company launched what was to have been a temporary advertising campaign starring an orange-clad mascot, The Great Root Bear. The bear and the tuba jingle that accompanied him became a long-running campaign (the tune, entitled "Ba-Dum, Ba-Dum", was released as a single by Attic Records, credited to "Major Ursus", a play on Ursa Major or "great bear"). The mascot was so successful that he was eventually adopted as the mascot by the American A&W chain as well. The famous tuba jingle was played by famed Vancouver jazz, classical and session trombonist Sharman King. King also did the ads for the "Book Warehouse" chain of discount book stores, which he owned.

A&W, AW, Aw, aW or aw may refer to:

People

Places

Companies

Media and entertainment

Science and technology