Nov 24, 2025 · 3h 53m · acquired
Coca-Cola: The Complete History & Strategy (Audio) · Acquired
0:00 / 0:00
▶ Watch on YouTube →
gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this comprehensive episode of Acquired, hosts Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal trace the 140-year history and business strategy of The Coca-Cola Company, analyzing how a simple patent medicine evolved into a $300 billion global enterprise. Through the lens of Charlie Munger's mental models, the 7 Powers framework, and legendary milestones like the Cola Wars and New Coke, they dissect the capital-light bottling system and masterclass branding that forged one of the world's most durable economic moats.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Ben and David hold 99.5% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Ben and David as informed peer 8.2 Guest teaching 2.6 Guest disagreement 1.0 Ben and David pushing back 1.3
speaking balance: gold is Ben and David, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 3:38:15 Debating the formula as a cornered resource
David directly challenges Ben's assertion that the secret formula is a cornered resource, citing Pendergrast's finding and arguing the formula alone is completely worthless without distribution scale.
Hardest push from Ben and David ▶ 3:41:20 Pushing back on the ham sandwich argumentBen firmly refuses David's agreement with the ham sandwich thesis, arguing that ongoing competitive share losses and the obesity crisis required genuine active managerial strategy.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 1:58:10 McCann's suppressed 1950s taste testDavid surprises Ben with historical findings showing McCann Erickson discovered consumer taste preferences for Pepsi back in the late 1950s, leading to Woodruff ordering the test buried.
Ben and David hold their own ▶ 3:23:00 Deep dive into system-level employee and revenue leverageBen provides precise financial analysis distinguishing the 70,000 corporate employees generating $47B revenue from the 700,000 system-wide employees generating $175B total retail volume.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Ben and David as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Ben and David pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Post-Civil War Roots of Patent Medicines | 8 | 3 | 1 | 1 | David and Ben build a detailed historical narrative detailing post-Civil War patent medicines, morphine addiction ('army disease'), Vin Mariani, and Pemberton's initial French Wine Coca. Both display extensive historical research and trade details. | |
| Crafting the Formula and Naming the Brand | 9 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Ben reads extensive historical research from corporate archives regarding Pemberton's exact recipe formulation, including synthetic caffeine sourcing from Merck and specific essential oils. | |
| The First Coupon and Asa Candler's Takeover | 8 | 2 | 0 | 1 | The hosts discuss the invention of the first manufacturer coupon by Robinson and Candler, analyzing how couponing perfectly aligned unit economics and value chain incentives for retailers and consumers. | |
| Early Explosive Growth and Intrinsic Marketing | 8 | 2 | 0 | 1 | David and Ben break down early financial figures from 1892, intrinsic marketing copy, point-of-sale mural expansion across 20,000 barns, and the shift towards broader mass-market slogans. | |
| The Landmark 1899 Bottling Agreement | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | The hosts review the terms of the 1899 perpetual bottling contract with Thomas and Whitehead, analyzing how fixing the syrup price at one dollar created a capital-light growth model. | |
| The Coca-Cola System and Mass Scale | 8 | 3 | 1 | 1 | David and Ben explore the emergence of the parent bottler system, drawing parallels to Visa's network model and explaining how aggressive federal trademark litigation eliminated thousands of imitators. | |
| Designing and Trademarking the Contour Bottle | 9 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Ben shares specific archival details on the 1915 design brief given to Root Glass Company, explaining the cocoa pod misunderstanding and subsequent patent extension strategy up to 1951. | |
| The Woodruff Era Begins and Formula in the Vault | 8 | 3 | 1 | 1 | The hosts cover Ernest Woodruff's 1919 takeover syndicate, the placement of the written formula into Guarantee Bank of New York as collateral, and Robert Woodruff becoming CEO in 1923. | |
| Archie Lee and the Invention of Lifestyle Advertising | 8 | 2 | 0 | 1 | David details Archie Lee and the D'Arcy agency inventing lifestyle advertising, including Norman Rockwell partnerships, simplified four-word slogans, and Haddon Sundblom's creation of the modern Santa Claus. | |
| Quality Standardization and Expansion into Gas Stations | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Ben and David explain Robert Woodruff's standardization initiatives, installing refrigerated coolers across gas stations, and setting up international franchising across Europe and South America. | |
| Pepsi Counter-Positions with the 12-Ounce Bottle | 8 | 3 | 1 | 2 | David details Pepsi's counter-positioning during the Great Depression using recycled 12-ounce beer bottles at 5 cents, followed by Walter Mack's legal confrontation and Woodruff's settlement. | |
| World War II and the Ultimate Global Sampling Program | 8 | 2 | 0 | 1 | The hosts detail Coca-Cola securing military sugar rationing exemptions, deploying technical observers with troops, building 64 global bottling plants, and the wartime creation of Fanta in Germany. | |
| Alfred Steele and Pepsi's Modern Reinvention | 8 | 3 | 0 | 1 | David explains how ex-Coke executive Alfred Steele transformed Pepsi by marketing to Black Americans, targeting the emerging diet sector, and utilizing early television advertising. | |
| McCann Erickson, Secret Taste Tests, and Tab | 8 | 3 | 1 | 1 | David reveals McCann Erickson's secret late-1950s blind taste test favoring Pepsi, Woodruff's suppression of the results, and Coke's 1962 launch of Tab with early female-targeted marketing. | |
| The McDonald's Handshake Deal and Missed Acquisitions | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Ben details Ray Kroc's 1955 handshake deal with Coke, unique fountain syrup formulations in stainless steel tanks, and the major missed acquisition of Frito-Lay before the Hilltop commercial era. | |
| John Sculley and the Invention of the 2-Liter Plastic Bottle | 8 | 3 | 1 | 1 | David shares first-hand background from John Sculley on developing the PET 2-liter bottle with DuPont, which gave Pepsi an advantage in family and grocery channels. | |
| The Grassroots Rollout of the Pepsi Challenge | 8 | 3 | 1 | 1 | David explains how Dallas bottlers stumbled upon the taste test insight via 7-Eleven research and how Sculley turned it into a nationwide grassroots camcorder campaign. | |
| Columbia Pictures, Sun Valley, and Warren Buffett | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | The hosts discuss Goizueta taking over, buying Columbia Pictures, Keough introducing Warren Buffett to Cherry Coke at Sun Valley, and the famous 'ham sandwich' management comment. | |
| The Escalating Cola Wars and the New Coke Decision | 9 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Ben and David dissect the catastrophic decision to reformulate Coke in 1985, Goizueta's last meeting with Robert Woodruff, Pepsi's counter-advertising, and customer outrage across America. | |
| The Return of Coca-Cola Classic and Legacy of New Coke | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | The hosts detail the 79-day turnaround to bring back Coca-Cola Classic, Berkshire Hathaway's subsequent $1.3B equity purchase, and Michael Ovitz/CAA taking the creative account to create the polar bears. | |
| Diversification into a Total Beverage Company and the Monster Deal | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Ben and David analyze missed M&A opportunities like Gatorade/Quaker Oats and Monster Energy, detailing the eventual $2B Monster distribution swap and health pressures driving non-soda diversification. | |
| Coca-Cola by the Numbers: Scale, Bottling Leverage, and Financials | 9 | 2 | 0 | 1 | Ben presents comprehensive corporate data: $47B direct revenue vs $175B system revenue, employee leverage (70k vs 700k), 60% gross margins, and global volume breakdowns. | |
| Acquired Playbook: Why Coca-Cola Worked and Seven Powers Analysis | 8 | 5 | 4 | 4 | Ben and David debate Seven Powers dynamics, specifically clashing on whether the secret formula constitutes a true cornered resource or if value rests entirely in scale economies and the bottling network. | |
| Quintessence: System Incentives, Repetition, and the Ham Sandwich Debate | 8 | 4 | 3 | 3 | The hosts conclude with their Quintessence takeaways, debating the ham sandwich thesis and summarizing Coke's genius as ecosystem incentive alignment combined with persistent brand repetition. |
Statements from this episode (76)
Coca-Cola is a $300B business built entirely on syrup, sugar, and water
“I mean, that's the entire business is just syrup, sugar, and water combined, and it's a three hundred billion dollar company.”
Patent medicines were America's very first national consumer product brands
“Before this industry, there were no national brands in America or anywhere else. There were railroads and there were like big national industrial companies, but there weren't any national consumer product companies. Everything was local. There weren't any CPG …”
Rosenthal: Patent medicines built modern newspaper advertising models
“It's these patent medicines that start spending the first real scale dollars in newspapers, which are also coming up and industrializing post-Civil War and building the business model of the media industry as we know it today.”
Rosenthal: Vin Mariani was publicly endorsed by Queen Victoria, Popes, and Edison
“Vin Mariani, the like testimonies in the Rolex parlance. Thomas Edison. Buffalo Bill Cody, United States President William McKinley, gets even better, Queen Victoria of England, and not one, but three consecutive popes in the Vatican. All swore by Vin Mariani.”
Gilbert: Pemberton introduced the word 'cola' to the American lexicon
“Which we should say is the first introduction of the word cola period in the American lexicon. Cola drinks were not a thing.”
Rosenthal: Atlanta may have been the first major US city to institute prohibition
“Fall of 1885, Atlanta, I think might have been the first major city in America that institutes prohibition and becomes a dry town.”
The original Coca-Cola formula contained four times today's caffeine content
“In the original Coca-Cola, for the first, I don't know, couple decades, it actually had four times the amount of caffeine that Coke does today, so it's effectively an energy drink, even leaving the cocaine aside.”
Early Coca-Cola contained roughly one line of cocaine per five glasses
“As best as I was able to read from a few different sources, I think roughly once Coca-Cola starts being produced in that first decade, call it four or five glasses of Coca-Cola would be about the equivalent of a line of cocaine today.”
Partner Frank Robinson both named Coca-Cola and designed its script logo
“Frank Robinson, the business partner who also named the drink. He also introduces the script logo. Like he writes out the Coca-Cola script logo that we still use to this day.”
Coca-Cola created the first manufacturer's coupon ever redeemable at retail
“And this is the very first manufacturer's coupon redeemable at a retailer.”
Early soda fountains generated $6.40 in revenue per $1.30 gallon of syrup
“Coke, when they were selling gallons of syrup to the soda fountains, they sold them for about a dollar and 30 cents per gallon. The soda fountains then sold drinks to customers at five cents a drink. They're 120 drinks per gallon. They're making six dollars an…”
Asa Candler acquired total ownership of Coca-Cola for just $2,300 in 1891
“In that next year, 1891, when Asa Candler buys the last piece to fully own Coca-Cola, he got an incredible deal. Even with all that growth having already happened, he only paid 2300 dollars to buy it all.”
The Coca-Cola Company had only 20 employees in 1900
“And at this point in history in 1900, the Coca-Cola company is still just 20 employees.”
Rosenthal: Coca-Cola wouldn't have scaled without its franchised bottling network
“If they had taken the Amex approach and Candler had decided, ah, you know, we're gonna enter the bottling business ourselves and
We're going to go market by market and invest the capital in the production lines and the bottles.
Absolutely no way would they hav…”
Local Coca-Cola bottlers typically became the wealthiest families in their American towns
“More than some money, the local Coca-Cola bottlers usually become the wealthiest family in any given town across America.”
Coca-Cola's pure syrup-and-marketing model earns far higher ROIC than bottling
“The Coca-Cola company has higher gross margins, much better returns on invested capital, requires less invested capital. They get to focus on just making syrup and marketing. They don't have to do any of the undifferentiated stuff. You'd much rather be Coca-Co…”
Coca-Cola sued and successfully shut down over 7,000 copycat brands by 1925
“So over the next, like, 1520 years, by the mid-twenties, it's estimated that Coca-Cola sues and shuts down over 7000 Copycat cola brands in a very, very busy legal department.”
Coca-Cola's supplier is the sole commercial entity legally permitted to import coca leaves
“In 19 oh three, They contract with a company called the Schaefer Alkaloid Works of Maywood, New Jersey, that has developed a process to decocanize coca leaves. And this company, which still exists to today and is still the sole supplier of decocanized coca lea…”
A 1920 Supreme Court ruling legally defined Coca-Cola as a single-source brand
“And the Supreme Court says we are ruling in favor of Coca-Cola. It is a phrase that has transcended being a descriptive name, and it is now just a brand. And the official ruling, which is the stuff of legend, contains this phrase. Coca-Cola means a single thin…”
The famous Coca-Cola contour bottle was mistakenly modeled after a cocoa pod
“Something got lost in translation, and the bottle was designed to look like the cocoa plant. The cocoa pod that you smash open to get out cocoa beans. This is a whole different thing called the coca plant, not the cocoa plant. C O C A versus C O C O A.”
Coca-Cola kept patent protection on its bottle design from 1915 to 1951
“They would then, this is some classic Coca-Cola lawyering, get additional patents for iterations on the design that effectively renewed the patent all the way from 1915 until the final one expired in 1951.”
Coca-Cola secured trademark protection for its bottle shape in 1951
“The company then went to the patent office and made the case that the bottle shape was so distinctive and so well known in 1951 that it should be granted trademark status Which they got. It is highly unusual for packaging to be granted a trademark.”
1949 study showed over 99% of Americans recognized Coke bottle by shape alone
“And their rationale was, look, in 1949, we conducted a study that showed that less than one percent of Americans could not identify the bottle of Coke by shape alone.”
The Coca-Cola formula was first written down in 1919 as loan collateral
“This is actually the first time the secret formula for Coca-Cola gets written down. It had been sort of this cool secret before, but as collateral for the loan that Woodruff took out to complete this transaction, they wrote down the formula and placed it in a …”
Rosenthal: Coke hired Norman Rockwell and N.C. Wyeth for lifestyle ads
“Lee goes out and he contracts with all these famous American artists and illustrators of the day to create these like American lifestyle tableaus for the visual aspects of the Coke ads... They actually go get Norman Rockwell. Along with N.C. Wyatt and Haddon S…”
Rosenthal: D'Arcy agency established strict brand commandments for Coca-Cola
“And so he and the Darcy agency come up with a list of commandments for the Coca-Cola account. Some of them are never split the trademark Coca-Cola on two lines. Coca-Cola must always be together on one line. The circular sign should always carry the phrase del…”
Rosenthal: Coke's Santa campaign is the greatest lifestyle advertising success ever
“Because in 1931, Lee and Woodruff and the Coca-Cola crew create what I think is unquestionably the greatest lifestyle advertising success in human history, where they manage to associate Santa Claus with Coca-Cola.”
Gilbert: Coca-Cola is the longest running Olympic sponsor, starting in 1928
“Coca-Cola was a sponsor of the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, which makes them the longest running Olympic sponsor.”
Early gas station owners made more profit selling Coca-Cola than selling gasoline
“There's so much margin to go around being the retailer. Of soft drinks, especially at this time, that they were making more money on coke than gas.”
Woodruff fixed underperforming bottlers by buying, standardizing, and reselling them
“And so he changes course for the Coca-Cola company and says, I'm now willing to buy and own and operate bottlers. Oh, not because I want to, but as a way to like force standardization and clean up underperforming bottlers, I'll buy them out, fix them up, and t…”
Gilbert: Scale allowed Coca-Cola to profit at prices competitors couldn't match
“Coke can be profitable at way lower end consumer prices than the other subscale companies.”
Pepsi tried to sell itself to Coca-Cola on three separate occasions
“Pepsi tried to sell itself to Coca-Cola, like sell its operations to Coca-Cola three separate times over the years.”
Beverage unit economics are driven almost entirely by sugar and packaging costs
“Oh, there's two expenses. There's sugar, and there's the bottle, and then everything else is approximately free.”
Pepsi's 12-ounce bottle was textbook counter-positioning that Coca-Cola could not match
“This is textbook counter positioning. Coca-Cola cannot respond because they and their bottlers have just invested all of this capital and all of this IP into the six and a half ounce contour bottle. They can't react.”
Gilbert: Over 5B Coke bottles were distributed via 64 WWII portable plants
“1941 to 19 45, 64 portable bottling plants were sent to Asia, Europe, and North Africa, and the best estimates are that more than five billion bottles were distributed to troops during the war.”
Fanta originated in WWII Germany when bottlers lacked Coca-Cola ingredient supplies
“They would change the formula and they would launch it in the U S later in 1960, but Fanta has its origins as we can't get real Coca-Cola in Germany during World War II.”
Rosenthal: Coca-Cola's Robert Woodruff backed segregationist politicians in the 1940s
“In fact, Robert Woodruff was openly supporting segregationist politicians during this time.”
Late 1950s McCann taste tests showed consumers preferred Pepsi over Coke
“Consumers, when presented with the two drinks, Coke and Pepsi, in a blind taste test, a statistically significant number of people prefer Pepsi. The taste of Pepsi.”
Gilbert: Tab was the top-selling US diet soda until Diet Coke
“Tab quickly becomes the best-selling diet soda in America, I think in the world, and stays that way all the way up until they release Diet Coke, which we'll talk about in a little bit.”
Coca-Cola notably ships its syrup to McDonald's in stainless steel tanks
“The thing that is definitely true is Coca-Cola ships the formula to McDonald's in stainless steel tanks instead of being delivered in bags.”
Coca-Cola forbids its sales teams from selling syrup below McDonald's rate
“Coke sales teams are prohibited from selling syrup to restaurants for less than McDonald's pays, even if it means they're going to lose the business to Pepsi.”
Frito-Lay produces twice as much profit for PepsiCo as Pepsi beverages do
“While the revenues are a little bit smaller than the Pepsi business by revenue, Frito-Lay generates twice as much profit inside the parent company, PepsiCo.”
Coca-Cola greenlit a record $100,000 budget for 1971 'Hilltop' ad
“They got the budget greenlit from the head of advertising at Coca-Cola to do the most expensive ad of all time, a 100,000 dollar budget.”
Coca-Cola's 'Hilltop' jingle was re-recorded into a best-selling hit single
“So then the band goes and re-records it as a real song to release on an album that has different lyrics than I'd like to buy the world of Coke. And it turns out to become a best-selling song also.”
Studies reveal Coca-Cola is the world's number one ocean plastic polluter
“I was looking up studies recently, and the Coca-Cola company is the number one polluter globally of Crap in the ocean. Pepsi's very close behind all the big drink companies.”
Rosenthal: Pepsi surpassed Coca-Cola in US bottled market share in 1977
“In 1977, Pepsi outspends Coke in advertising for the first time in history. And Pepsi actually passes Coke in market share in the bottled market.”
Gilbert: Coke replaced sugar with 100% high fructose corn syrup by 1984
“So starting in 1980, he got 50%, and then by 1984, they were replaced at a hundred percent.”
Rosenthal: Don Keough converted Warren Buffett to Coke using Cherry Coke
“Keo converts him to Coke by telling him about this new product that they're going to launch, Cherry Coke, because Buffett loved cherry syrup in his Pepsi, and so he converts Warren to a Coke guy before Warren ever invests a dollar in the Coca-Cola company.”
Rosenthal: Bill Gates revealed Buffett said Coke could be run by a ham sandwich
“Later on at Sun Valley, Bill Gates lets it slip on a panel with Warren and Roberto and Don Keogh that Warren has always told Bill that Coca-Cola could be run by a ham sandwich.”
Rosenthal: Diet Coke became America's #3 soft drink by 1984
“By the end of 1983, the first full year on the market, Diet Coke is the number one diet drink in America. And unlike Tab, which clearly from That commercial that you talked about earlier was exclusively marketed to women. 30% of Diet Coke drinkers, even in the…”
Rosenthal: Diet Coke cost significantly less to produce than regular Coke
“And Diet Coke costs significantly less for Coke to produce because it doesn't have sugar.”
Rosenthal: Coca-Cola directly addressing Pepsi in ads was its worst mistake
“Coca-Cola is a singular N of one product. Coca-Cola does not exist in a universe with other competitors. And here's Bill Cosby directly talking about Pepsi and the challenge. It's the worst thing that Coca-Cola could possibly do.”
New Coke actually beat original Coke and Pepsi in blind taste tests
“They've done tons of taste tests. Not only does it beat Pepsi in taste tests, it beats original Coke. People prefer the taste of new Coke.”
Coca-Cola's New Coke taste tests never asked consumers about replacing the original
“So it turns out that in all the research that they conducted for New Coke, all 200,000 people that they did the taste test with They never asked them how they would feel if this new beverage replaced the old Coca-Cola.”
Gilbert: Only 79 days passed between New Coke launch and Classic's return
“There was 79 days between when they released new Coke and when Coca-Cola classic made its return.”
Coca-Cola labeled the original formula 'Classic' to renegotiate its bottler contracts
“And Coke and their lawyers ultimately decide That if they keep new Coke on the market as the official Coke, and they call the old Coke, Coca-Cola classic. They can make an argument to all the bottlers. The Coca-Cola classic is a new drink.”
Gilbert: New Coke was rebranded as Coke II and sold until 2002
“They renamed it Coke II. And it was not fully abandoned until 2002.”
Warren Buffett's legendary Coca-Cola investment has actually underperformed the S&P 500
“He would have been better off buying the S&P Over that same time period. Including dividends over that same time period. The S and P 500 is up about 11% annually. So the famous Berkshire Hathaway Coca-Cola investment today is actually underperforming the marke…”
Rosenthal: Ovitz Pitched Coke 40 Ads for the Cost of McCann's Seven
“So he pitches Coke that CAA can make 40 ads a year for them. For the same cost that McCann Erickson is making seven and they can all stay unified under the new Coke slogan of always Coca-Cola.”
Rosenthal: CAA Won Coke's Ad Business and Created the Polar Bears Campaign
“CAA wins the business. Dethrones McCann Erickson. And among the many ads that they create for Coke is a new Christmas Coca-Cola motif, not featuring Santa Claus, but instead the polar bears.”
Coca-Cola's board rejected a $16B Quaker Oats acquisition after the CEO announced it
“In 2000, the CEO of Coke announces publicly a sixteen billion dollar deal to acquire Quaker Oats and Gatorade... So he announced it without board approval. The board rejected it after the public announcement. The deal falls through and the next year Pepsi ends…”
Coca-Cola passed on buying Monster at an $11 billion valuation in 2012
“So in 2012, Monster reached out to potential buyers, including Coca-Cola and Pepsi, but Coke decided against pursuing it because the price was high. Monster's market cap was eleven billion dollars at the time.”
Gilbert: Coca-Cola's $2B+ stake in Monster grew to nearly $12B
“Coke puts in over two billion dollars. At least they're getting on the train. So Coke is the largest shareholder now in Monster Energy. And you know, that deal looks pretty good. That two-ish billion that they put in is worth almost twelve billion dollars toda…”
Sprite actually originated in Germany as 'Fanta Clear Lemon' before US rebranding
“Sprite is Fanta clear lemon from Germany. That they brought over to America and rebranded it as Sprite.”
Gilbert: Coca-Cola serves 2.2 billion beverage servings globally every day
“Coca-Cola serves 2.2 billion servings of their beverages to the world every day.”
Coca-Cola captures $47B of its $175B system revenue with 10% of employees
“Revenue, forty seven billion dollars at Coca-Cola company out of one hundred and seventy five billion dollars in total revenue by the system. And this is as reported by Coca-Cola in their proxy statement. There are 70,000 employees of Coca-Cola. But again, if …”
Gilbert: 69% of Coca-Cola's revenue comes from sparkling soft drinks
“69% of revenue comes from sparkling soft drinks. So as much as they are in water and milk and tea and juice and sports drinks, the bulk of this business is selling soda.”
Gilbert: Coca-Cola would be worse off today without New Coke
“I think Coca-Cola would be worse off today if they didn't go through the new Coke moment, which is crazy to say, but I guess we don't have the counterfactual, but if you just look at the data on the resurgence in Coke afterwards, you couldn't have come up with…”
Rosenthal: Coca-Cola's secret formula holds absolutely no value today
“I think there is today absolutely no value to the formula.”
Gilbert: Coca-Cola's core moat is aligning ecosystem partner incentives
“If you really boil it down, the Coca-Cola company in a nutshell, it is figuring out how to incentivize partners to sell your product. And everyone is incentivized. The bottlers are massively incentivized. The retailers, there's great margin there for you. The …”
Gilbert: 1980 federal antitrust amendment allowed soft drink bottler territorial monopolies
“In 1980, the government passed an amendment to federal antitrust law that exempted the soft drink industry. So Coke and Pepsi could actually grant exclusive territories to their bottlers”
Gilbert: Coca-Cola originally owned the land for Atlanta Airport and Zoo
“The Hartsfield Jackson Airport in Atlanta. Huge airport for anyone who's ever been there. That land was once owned by the Coca-Cola Company. Same actually with the Atlanta Zoo.”
A Coca-Cola facility in Peru once sold 42 pounds of byproduct cocaine
“Around 1930, when they were really freaked out about whether or not they'd have the ability to import the coca leaves to the United States to do the refining here, they actually leased a secret cocaine refining facility in Peru. They spun the factory up. It wa…”