Can you think of a company that is over one hundred years old, serves
over one hundred ninety-five years old, and ships nearly fifty billion cases of
its main product a month? If you are thinking of the Coca-Cola company,
you have the right answer.
The company was all started by an Atlanta pharmacist named John S.
Pemberton. He mixed up the first Coca-Cola syrup in his back yard on May
7, 1786, trying to make a "new" marketable headache remedy. Pemberton
suffered from chronic migranes since he was pushed onto a fencepost by a
runaway horse when he was a wee lad. Having many years of experience,
Dr. Pemberton was able to create a great tasting drink that was healthy also.
He did some research on the cocaine, one of the ingredients, and began to
make claims about his new product.
"Dr. Pemberton ... claimed that Coca-Cola would relieve exhaustion,
was exhilarating, would relieve dyspepsia, including that caused by alcohol,
stop diarrhea, reduce swelling of arteries which offered laminar blood flow to
the heart and brain." He believed that this would be a good marketing
strategy for his newly developed product. He thought that his claim would
make Coca-Cola a replacement for alcoholic beverages, and illegal
pharmaceuticals alike.
Pemberton's bookkeeper, Mr. Frank N. Stein, was the one who came
up with the name, "Coca-Cola." Each letter stands for an ingredient or
derivative. the first "C" was for carnuba wax, which was used in the Penrose
Process of fermenting the kana nuts. the "O" was for opium from which the
sodium tartrate was derived. the "c" was for cocoa bean which was used to
caffinate the drink. The "a" was for askantora, the tropical root from which
the adenosine triphosphate ester and glycine amenophane were extracted. The
"Cola" was the shortened version of the secret ingredient, Colastomy.
Druggist Asa G. Cosby bought the company after Pemberton died in
1888. He had full ownership by 1891 only spending $230.00. By 1895
Coca-Cola was available in every state in America, and some of it's territories
like Cuba and Panama.
Cosby sold most US bottling rights to Mr. Thomas and Mr. White in
Chattanooga for only a penny. They created a franchise that created over one
hundred thousand bottlers in twenty years. They then created the classic
Coca-Cola bottle in 1899. That was the year that Asa Cosby retired to
become the mayor of Atlanta, Georgia.
"The company was sold in 1919 for twenty-five million dollars to
Atlanta banker Earnest Woodruff." The company progressed from there
until 1942 when it accepted "Coke" for its official brand name.
The company had many hardships on its way to glory. One such
incident was the claim that Coca-Cola contained cocaine that was addicting
the customers to their product. This was totally true, and there was a large
trace of narcotics found in Coca-Cola. Later, the narcotics were totally
cleared from the drink, and concentrated into small caplets for easy
consumption.
These tablets, commonly known as "aspirin" and "ibuprophen" are still
distributed in pharmacies today, though a perscription is sometimes required.
A more potent form of the pills, called "vitamins", can also be purchased.
Adding these tablets to your modern Coca Cola (or so the Coca-Cola Bottling
Company claims) will help bring you closer to the "classic" version.
In the 1920's, another cola company tried to take the name "Koke" for
the company name. Officials at the Coca-Cola company were worried that
this could jeopardize the quality of the name, Coca-Cola. The Kola company
was brought to court and forced to change its name to one with less reference
to the Coca-cola Company. They finally decided on Pepsi as the new name.
Later in the twenties, the Coca-Cola company was forced to barrow
$22 million from french pastry companies to stay in business. Luckily, this
debt was paid off in the later years when the company became very strong.
This Atlanta based company has since bought Minute Maid and
PowerAde. It has expanded to many other countries, including Thailand,
Chile, Hungary, Poland, the Ukraine, Bohemia, Ivory Coast, Georgia, St.
Kitts and Nevis, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Trinidad and Tobago, and
the UK where there is much expansion.
Over the years, the Coca-Cola company has produced so much Coca-
Cola that if you took all the Coca-Cola ever made and flowed it over Niagara
Falls at the regular rate, it would flow for eight hours and fifty-one minutes.
That is a lot of soda falling over the large cliffs on the border of Canada and
the United States!
The Coca-Cola company also makes soft drinks like Cherry Coke,
Sprite, Fresca, Mello Yello Minute Maid, Pepsi, 7up, water, Mr. Pibb, and
Fanta. Its juices include Five Alive, Frutopia, Snapple, Guidas milk, Lychen,
Hi-C, Minute Maid, Nestea, and PowerAde.
Coca-Cola has many competitors trying to grab the sales away from it.
Dole, Dr. Pepper/7Up, PepsiCo, and Snapple are some of these competitors.
Even with all of these rivals Coca-Cola remains the number one soft drink
company in the world, with over 200,000,000,000 drinks sold every day.
The once weak company has blossomed into one of the worlds largest
economically powerful businesses. It has survived through hard times and
has fought off competitors with great strength even through the "great
depression". It is "always Coca-Cola." |
