BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – Cheerwine, a North Carolina soft drink with a rabid regional following and designs on national distribution, will be available in Birmingham and much of the rest of Alabama beginning Monday.

Birmingham's Buffalo Rock Co. will distribute the soda in Alabama, western Georgia and the Florida panhandle, the Pepsi bottler and Cheerwine announced today. In addition to handling distribution Buffalo Rock will make Cheerwine at its Birmingham production plant.

The deal will place the soft drink in up to 15,000 retailers serving a market of about 6.5 million people. Cheerwine currently is available in 23 states including Alabama, where its availability is limited to Huntsville.

"Cheerwine is a very successful soft drink brand with an incredibly passionate fan base in the Carolinas and other parts of the South," Buffalo Rock Vice President Warren Austin said in a prepared statement. "We expect it to be successful with consumers in Alabama, Georgia and northwest Florida."

Cheerwine has set a goal of being available in all 50 states by its centennial, in 2017, and last year expanded into the Pacific Northwest.

Tom Barbitta, senior vice president at Cheerwine, said the deal is especially meaningful because it matches two independent soft drink companies.

"This partnership gives our brand a foothold in a part of the country where there is solid demand for Cheerwine," he said. "Buffalo Rock has been superb to work with on every level, and we are very grateful to their leadership team for giving us this opportunity."

Family-owned Cheerwine was founded by general store owner L.D. Peeler in 1917 and today is run by his great grandson Cliff Ritchie.

Buffalo Rock CEO James C. Lee III is the fourth generation of his family to run the Birmingham business, which employs more than 2,100.