On Manuel Nobriga's first day on the job at Maui Soda & Ice Works in 1922, he was told to deliver ice to the company's regular customers. He wasn't given any addresses, but was told the horse knew where to go.

After his first stop, he returned to the roadside to discover that the horse and wagon were gone. Fearing he had lost the horse on his first day of work, Nobriga was in a panic.

The experienced horse did not run away, but had gone to the next stop. Nobriga finally realized that the horse was leading him along the route and he had nothing to worry about.

Despite this shaky start, Nobriga stuck with the company and eventually would take over as its president. Under his leadership and two generations of Nobrigas that followed, Maui Soda & Ice Works would grow from a "common soda water" company to one of the top Coca-Cola franchises in the country as well as a leader in the local ice cream market with its Roselani Tropics ice cream products.

Maui Soda & Ice Works this year will celebrate its 120th anniversary, 62 under the leadership of the Nobriga family. Manuel Nobriga stayed with the company for 52 years, and turned over control to his son, David "Buddy" Nobriga, in 1971.

Buddy retired in 1998 and handed the company to his son, Michael. Buddy's daughter, Cathy Nobriga Kim, runs the Roselani Tropics ice cream division of the company.

Now 81, Buddy Nobriga goes to work each day and still has the biggest office at the company's Wailuku facility.

"He's earned it," said Nobriga Kim, 51.

The Nobrigas believe that the company has survived all these years because it's been under the family's control. They've had complete oversight over the soda and ice cream products to ensure their quality, and the Nobrigas also have instilled a sense of "family" in the way they treat their 85 employees and the community.

"The secret to our success is promoting our own family, lifestyle, considering all employees as part of our family, and really giving back and being an integral part of the community at large, be it religiously, politically, socially, athletically and culturally," Michael Nobriga said.

Maui Soda & Ice Works is a major sponsor of community events, such as the Maui County Fair and the Fourth of July Makawao Rodeo. Proceeds from a special anniversary Roselani Aloha Cherry Truffle ice cream this year will go to a breast cancer awareness fund. Nobriga Kim is a breast cancer survivor.

"We hear and read about the corporateness of America and the corporateness of Hawai'i and that is extremely disheartening to us," Michael said.

Although the company is profitable today, it hasn't always been a smooth ride.

Over the years, Buddy Nobriga has had to fight off attempts by Coca-Cola to buy his independent franchise. (Maui Soda & Ice Works is one of the few remaining independent Coke franchises.) He also had to retool his facility when he switched from bottles to cans in 1988.

When Meadow Gold and Roselani severed ties, Nobriga Kim struggled to find a way to distribute her ice cream products.

Maui Soda & Ice Works also has had to battle the large hotels and other big companies for employees. Despite advances in technology, Michael Nobriga admits that the work is tough at their plant.

"They probably pay a young man $14 an hour to go down to the pool and spritz Evian water on fine, attractive young women. Whereas they work for me for $14 an hour and they bust their freakin' 'okoles. That's a challenge," he said.

In addition to the Coke brand and ice cream, Maui Soda & Ice Works produces cocktail mixes for lu'au shows and the hotels.

Michael Nobriga said beverage sales account for about 60 percent of the company's revenue, while the food service brings in about 18 percent. Roselani Tropics accounts for the remaining 22 percent, he said.

Nobriga Kim said the frozen division created the most recent challenge for Maui Soda & Ice Works when she decided to go statewide with the ice cream. Roselani's haupia ice cream and other flavors were well-known on Maui, but very few people outside of the island had heard of the products.

In 1998, Nobriga Kim took Roselani ice cream to O'ahu, but said it wasn't an instant hit.

"We struggled the first few years. We were not known," she said. "Here on Maui everything that we've done was a grass-roots effort. We're a community organization. We're active in events. We're active with the local markets."

But in 2004, Foodland put Roselani in its stores statewide and Safeway did the same the following year. Nobriga Kim also launched a three-year TV marketing program to promote her Roselani ice cream.

Nobriga Kim believes her plan worked because 2007 sales "exceeded what we anticipated." She said she will continue to promote her products, as well as introduce new flavors, which she calls "oldies but goodies" that her father and grandfather developed.

With three generations of Nobrigas having a hand in the success of the company, Buddy Nobriga believes Maui Soda & Ice Works will continue as a fourth generation prepares to join the company.

"I'm 81 and I hope that when I'm not around that we keep it up. They would be foolish not to," he said. "I keep telling them, 'You stick together, nobody's going to beat you. You start fighting, everything will go down the drain. Keep that in mind. I always kept that in mind.' "

And, thinking back to how he and his father got started with the company, Buddy Nobriga talked about how one of his eight grandchildren wants to join the business, but only if he can start at the top. Buddy's first job at the company in 1941 was to wash wooden boxes and care for the boss's horses.

"I told him, 'My friend, we don't work that way,' " he said.