Drivers passing the interchange where Red Mountain Expressway meets Interstate 59/20 are seeing something new overhead: six towering silos wrapped to look like giant Pepsi cans, rising 45 feet from base to top along one of Birmingham's busiest corridors.
The installation is the work of Buffalo Rock Company and Southern Armature Works, according to Bham Now, which reports the project was seven years in the making. The six silos sit on Southern Armature's property at 2720 Seventh Ave. N, where the company relocated in 2019, on a site that dates back to 1935, per the outlet's reporting.
From Plastic Pellets to Pepsi Cans
Before they became a branding canvas, the silos stored pellets used in plastic packaging production, according to the same report. Once that use ended, Terry and Charles Rumore began considering new purposes for the structures. The silos resembled giant beverage cans, and Pepsi came to mind, per Bham Now's account.
Southern Armature Works, a family-owned Birmingham business founded in 1931 by Ross Joseph Rumore, according to Southern Armature Works, partnered with Buffalo Rock to bring the idea to life. Crews used specialized rappelling equipment to reach the six silos, then primed each one before installing specially made vinyl wraps featuring Pepsi blue, white lettering and the globe logo, Bham Now reported.
A Corridor Built for Visibility
Motorists can see the silos from both Red Mountain Expressway and I-59/20, according to Bham Now's reporting. The six silos provided a canvas for Pepsi branding along a heavily traveled Birmingham corridor, the outlet's report states. The sign celebrates the company's local roots and its Pepsi partnership, per the same account.
It is not the first time a giant Pepsi sign has loomed over the city. Birmingham's original rooftop Pepsi sign first went up in 1971, scrolling lighted electronic messages across the skyline, according to al.com. In 2014, Harbert put up a 179-by-25-foot sign atop downtown's Two North Twentieth building, al.com reported at the time. The earlier rooftop sign and the new silo installation occupy separate locations and have distinct histories.
A Birmingham Company Turning 125
Buffalo Rock's roots in Birmingham go back to 1901, when it started as a local grocery business run by the Lee family, according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama. Soon after James C. Lee Jr. became CEO in 1951, the company bought the Pepsi-Cola franchise in Birmingham, the encyclopedia notes, a partnership that Bham Now reports has now lasted 75 years. The company relocated in 1966 to a 15-acre site a few miles south of Red Mountain, per the encyclopedia's history, and in 2020 announced a $20 million plant in Huntsville.
Today Buffalo Rock describes itself as the nation's largest single family-owned Pepsi and Dr Pepper bottler, manufacturing Pepsi in Birmingham and serving approximately 7 million consumers across Alabama, western Georgia and the Florida Panhandle, according to Bham Now. A separate 2026 profile from Business Alabama put that reach at more than 7 million consumers and 15,000 retail customers served through 14 franchises, marking the Birmingham-based company's 125th anniversary this year. The Encyclopedia of Alabama separately describes the company as operating 14 distribution centers across Alabama, Georgia and Florida and employing roughly 2,700 people company-wide.
For now, the six wrapped silos stand as the newest marker of that long run, a quieter neighborhood landmark compared to the old downtown rooftop sign but one that greets thousands of commuters daily where Red Mountain Expressway meets the interstate.
