Coco-Cola Company

Our story 1886-1892: the beginning

By: Journey Staff

It was 1886 and in New York Harbour, workers were constructing the Statue of
Liberty. Eight hundred miles away, another great American symbol was about to be
unveiled. Like many people who change history, John Pemberton, an Atlanta pharmacist,
was inspired by simple curiosity.
One afternoon, he stirred up a fragrant, caramel-coloured liquid and, when it was
done, he carried it a few doors down to Jacobs Pharmacy. Here, the mixture was combined
with carbonated water and sampled by customers who all agreed this new drink was
something special. So Jacobs Pharmacy put it on sale for five cents (about 3p) a glass.
Pembertons bookkeeper, Frank Robinson, named the mixture Coca-Cola and wrote it out
in his distinctive script.
To this day, Coca-Cola is written the same way. In the first year, Pemberton sold
just nine glasses of Coca-Cola a day. A century later, The Coca-Cola Company has
produced more than ten billion gallons of syrup. Over the course of three years, between
1888-1891, Atlanta businessman Asa Griggs Candler secured rights to the business for a
total of about $2,300 (about 1,500). Candler would become Coca-Colas first president
and the first to bring real vision to the business and the brand.

The early years (1893-1904)

Asa Candler, a natural born salesman, transformed Coca-Cola from an invention
into a business.
Candler knew there were thirsty people out there, and he found brilliant and
innovative ways to introduce them to this exciting new refreshment. He gave away coupons
for complimentary first tastes of Coca-Cola and outfitted distributing pharmacists with
clocks, urns, calendars and apothecary scales bearing the Coca-Cola branding. People saw
Coca-Cola everywhere, and the aggressive promotion worked. By 1895, Candler had built
syrup plants in Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles.
Inevitably, the drinks popularity led to a demand for it to be enjoyed in new ways.
In 1894, a Mississippi businessman named Joseph Biedenharn became the first to put CocaCola in bottles. He sent 12 of them to Candler who responded without enthusiasm. Despite
being a brilliant and innovative businessman, he didnt realise then that the future of CocaCola would be with portable, bottled beverages customers could take anywhere. He still
didnt realise it five years later, when, in 1899, two Chattanooga lawyers, Benjamin

Thomas and Joseph Whitehead, secured exclusive rights from Candler to bottle and sell the
beverage for the sum of only one dollar.

Coke finds its identify (109-1918)

As Coca-Cola grew in popularity, copycats began to appear eager to capitalise on

the success.
Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but The Coca-Cola Company was
none too pleased and set about protecting the product and the brand. Advertising focused on
the authenticity of Coca-Cola, urging consumers to Demand the genuine and Accept no
substitute.
The company also wanted to create a distinctive bottle shape to assure people they
were getting a real Coca-Cola. The Root Glass Company of Terre Haute, Indiana, won a
contest to design a bottle that could be recognised in the dark, and in 1916, they began
manufacturing the famous Contour Bottle, which remains the signature shape of Coca-Cola
today.
The Coca-Cola Company grew rapidly and before long expanded into Canada,
Panama, Cuba, Puerto Rico, France and other countries and US territories. In 1900, there
were two bottlers of Coca-Cola; by 1920, there were about 1,000.

History of Coca-Cola 1919-1940: the Woodruff legacy and Cokes first

Olympics

Arguably no person had more impact on The Coca-Cola Company than Robert
Woodruff. In 1923, four years after his father Ernest purchased the company from Asa
Candler, Robert became the companys president. Candler had introduced the U.S to CocaCola, but the new company leader would spend more than 60 years introducing the drink to
the world.

Woodruff was a marketing genius who saw opportunities everywhere. He

spearheaded expansion overseas and in 1928 introduced Coca-Cola to the Olympic Games
for the first time, when the beverage travelled with Team USA to the 1928 Amsterdam
Olympics.

Woodruff pushed for development and distribution of the six-pack and many other
innovations that made it easier for people to enjoy Coca-Cola at home or on the move. This
new thinking made Coca-Cola not just a huge success but a big a big part of peoples lives.
History of Coca-Cola 1941-1959: the war and what followed

In 1941, America entered World War II and thousands of US citizens were sent
overseas. To show support for the brave men and women, Coca-Cola President Robert
Woodruff ordered that every man in uniform gets a bottle of Coca-Cola for five cents,
wherever he is and whatever it costs the company.
In 1943, General Dwight D Eisenhower sent an urgent cable to Coca-Cola
requesting shipment of materials for 10 bottling plants. During the war many people
enjoyed their first taste of the drink, and when peace finally came, the foundations had been
laid for Coca-Cola to do business overseas.
Woodruffs vision that Coca-Cola be placed within arms reach of desire was
coming true. From the mid-1940s until 1960, the number of countries with bottling
operations nearly doubled.

Post-war America was alive with optimism and prosperity. Coca-Cola was part of a
fun, carefree American lifestyle, and the imagery of its advertising happy couples at the
drive-in, carefree mums driving big, yellow convertibles reflected the spirit of the times.
part of peoples lives.

History of Coca-Cola 1960-1981: going global

After 70 years of success with one brand, The Coca-Cola Company decided to
expand its range of flavours. Fanta, originally developed in the 1940s, was introduced in
the 1950s, before Sprite followed in 1961, TAB in 1963 and Fresca in 1966.

The companys presence worldwide was growing rapidly and year after year
Coca-Cola found a home in more and more places: Cambodia, Montserrat, Paraguay,
Macau and Turkey among others.

Advertising for Coca-Cola, always an important and exciting part of its business,
really came into its own in the 1970s, reflecting a brand associated with fun, friends and
good times.

The international appeal of Coke was embodied by a famous 1971 commercial

where a group of young people from all over the world gathered on a hilltop in Italy to sing
Id Like to Buy the World a Coke.

History of Coca-Cola 1982-1989: the debut of Diet

The 1980s was the era of leg warmers, headbands and the fitness craze and a time
of much change and innovation at The Coca-Cola Company.

In 1981, Roberto C Goizueta became chairman of the board of directors and CEO,
and set about a complete overhaul of the company with a strategy he called intelligent risk
taking.

Among his bold moves was organising the numerous US bottling operations into a
new public company, Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. He also led the introduction of Diet Coke,
the very first extension of the Coca-Cola trademark. Within two years, it had become the
top low-calorie drink in the world, second in success only to Coca-Cola.

One of Goizuetas other initiatives in 1985 was the development of a new taste for
Coca-Cola, the first change in formulation in 99 years. In taste tests people loved New
Coke, but it soon became clear that the wider public had a deep emotional attachment to
the original, and they pleaded for a return to the traditional formula. Critics called it the
biggest marketing blunder ever. Coca-Cola listened, and the original product was returned
to the market as Coca-Cola Classic. Before long, Coke began to increase its lead over the
competition, a lead that continues to this day.

History of Coca-Cola 1990-1999: new drinks, new characters

The 1990s were a time of continued growth, and the companys long association
with sports was strengthened with ongoing support of the Olympic Games, FIFA World
Cup football, Rugby World Cup and the National Basketball Association.

The popular Always Coca-Cola advertising campaign was launched in 1993, and the
world met the lovable Coca-Cola Polar Bear for the first time. New markets opened up as
Coca-Cola products were sold in what was formerly East Germany in 1990 and returned to
India in 1993.
New beverages joined Coca-Colas line-up too, including Powerade sports drinks
and Oasis fruit drinks. Coca-Colas family of brands further expanded through acquisitions,
including Limca, Maaza and Thums Up in India, Barqs root beer in the US, Inca Kola in
Peru and Cadbury Schweppes beverage brands in more than 120 countries around the
world.
By 1997, Coca-Cola already sold one billion servings of its products every day yet
recognised that opportunity for growth was still around every corner.

History of Coca-Cola 2000 to now: living positively 128 years on

The first decade of the new millennium brought with it an increase in Coca-Colas
efforts to create a sustainable framework for the future.

In 2009, the company launched Live Positively a public commitment to making a

positive difference in the world by redesigning the way we work and live so that
sustainability is part of everything we do. Live Positively includes goals for providing and
tailoring drinks for every lifestyle, supporting active, healthy-living programmes, building
sustainable communities, reducing and recycling our packaging, cutting our carbon
emissions, establishing a sustainable water operation and creating a safe, inclusive work
environment for all.

The company has continued to build on existing relationships with global sports
events such as the FIFA World Cup and played a major role in making the London 2012
Olympics the most sustainable Games in history. Meanwhile, we continue to nurture our
affiliation with Special Olympics, which began in 1968.

Coca-Cola has remained dedicated to offering quality drinks for every lifestyle and
occasion, marketing those drinks responsibly and providing information that consumers can

trust. As of 2008, Coca-Cola could count more than 160 low-calorie and no-calorie drinks
in the companys range, such as Coke Zero and Powerade Zero. In the UK 39% of the
drinks sold are now lower or no calorie.

From the early beginnings when just nine drinks a day were served, Coca-Cola has
grown to be the worlds most ubiquitous brand. There are now 1.9 billion servings of CocaCola Company products served every day.

We want to keep providing magic every time someone drinks one of our 400+
brands, and we aim to do it all in a sustainable way that benefits consumers and the
communities we operate in.

This is the link where I found all this information:

http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/stories/history/heritage/our-story-2000-to-now-livingpositively-125-years-on/

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