3 ms·

That just means they have all the infrastructure they need to bottle syrup from another source and start selling that instead - no capex needed, just maybe need

That just means they have all the infrastructure they need to bottle syrup from another source and start selling that instead - no capex needed, just maybe need to get together with other franchisees and figure out how to spend some opex on marketing and getting it onto store shelves. Coca-cola has a moat, but it's hardly protective of franchisees here.

blell 9mo ago
There must be thousands of soda manufacturers in Europe. I can buy dozens of sodas where I live. But they are not Coca Cola.
- anilgulecha 9mo ago
  From a recent hn discussion there's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDkH3EbWTYc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDkH3EbWTYc
- immibis 9mo ago
  They are bottled at the same places that bottle Coca-Cola. If those places stop paying for their Coca-Cola brand license because nobody is buying it... then okay? so what? Or, now that someone's reverse-engineered the Coca-Cola formula and everyone's saying we need to stop pandering to USA IP rights, governments have the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever. I think Russia already did.
wpm 9mo ago
Someone just used gas chromatography to develop a seemingly passable knock off of the unpatented Coca Cola formula and posted it online. https://youtu.be/TDkH3EbWTYc https://youtu.be/TDkH3EbWTYc
- amarcheschi 9mo ago
  I firmly believe that such thing is already know by companies... In the niche perfumes hobby, you have small brands doing that or people paying for gcms analysis on perfumes, i guess that companies have already done that on coke for decades
- hyperman1 9mo ago
  I always assumed this to be marketing, as reversing the formula has been easy since the '90s. I know someone with acces to a university lab, and he reverses and recreates popular tastes as a hobby. Also, in double blind taste tests, pepsi tends to win from Coca. Their real genius was always marketing, associating sugar water with freedom, free time, summer AND christmas, ... Not to look down on them, good marketing is both very hard and very powerfull.

blell 9mo ago

There must be thousands of soda manufacturers in Europe. I can buy dozens of sodas where I live. But they are not Coca Cola.

anilgulecha 9mo ago
From a recent hn discussion there's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDkH3EbWTYc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDkH3EbWTYc
immibis 9mo ago
They are bottled at the same places that bottle Coca-Cola. If those places stop paying for their Coca-Cola brand license because nobody is buying it... then okay? so what? Or, now that someone's reverse-engineered the Coca-Cola formula and everyone's saying we need to stop pandering to USA IP rights, governments have the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever. I think Russia already did.

wpm 9mo ago

Someone just used gas chromatography to develop a seemingly passable knock off of the unpatented Coca Cola formula and posted it online. https://youtu.be/TDkH3EbWTYc https://youtu.be/TDkH3EbWTYc

amarcheschi 9mo ago
I firmly believe that such thing is already know by companies... In the niche perfumes hobby, you have small brands doing that or people paying for gcms analysis on perfumes, i guess that companies have already done that on coke for decades
hyperman1 9mo ago
I always assumed this to be marketing, as reversing the formula has been easy since the '90s. I know someone with acces to a university lab, and he reverses and recreates popular tastes as a hobby. Also, in double blind taste tests, pepsi tends to win from Coca. Their real genius was always marketing, associating sugar water with freedom, free time, summer AND christmas, ... Not to look down on them, good marketing is both very hard and very powerfull.