L’origine
The world’s most famous drink was born in Atlanta on May 8, 1886. Dr. John Stith Pemberton, a local pharmacist “invented” a syrup made from coca leaves and kola nuts that he sold in Jacob’s Pharmacy, where soda water was added and the glass sold for 5 cents in a fountain soda. This drink was already described as “Delicious and refreshing”, a theme always associated with Coca-Cola.
A friend and associate of Dr. Pemberton’s, Frank Robinson, suggested the name and the caligraphy of Coca-Cola. The beginning was laborious, with advertising limited to a few handwritten signs and an add in the local newspaper, The Atlanta journal. An average of nine glasses a day was sold in the first year.
Dr. Pemberton never realized the full potential of his invention. He gradually sold his shares of the company to various partners. He sold the balance in 1888, shortly before his death, to Asa G. Candler. Asa G. Candler, had a flair for business and gradually bought up the remaining shares to take full control of Coca-Cola.
Asa CANDLER : l’envol de Coca-Cola
Asa Candler quickly understood the power of advertising and the potential of her drink. A full page in The Atlanta Journal, abandoning the pharmaceutical business, he refocuses on the “soft drink”. He founded the Coca-Cola Company in 1892 with his brother John, Frank Robinson and two other partners. The mark Coca-Cola is deposited on January 31, 1893 and the first dividends fall…
Forerunner, Candler multiplies the advertising efforts, the vouchers and the derived products. The sales increase and in 1894 the first factory of basic syrup manufacturing is born outside Atlanta, in Dallas then in Chicago and Los Angeles the following year. A new building entirely dedicated to the manufacture of syrup and the development of the business.
While Candler concentrates on distributing his drink from fountain soda, another concept was born in Mississippi that will allow Coca-Cola to take on a global dimension.
In 1894 Joseph A. Biedenharn, faced with the success of the demand for fountain soda, set up a bottling plant in his back shop and began selling bottles of Coca-Cola to local farmers.
The time came to work on the contracts with Candler and, as early as 1899, Benjamin F. Thomas and Joseph B. Whitehead industrialised the distribution of Coca-Cola and developed what has become the bottling system that is now established all over the world.
The Contour bottle
As early as 1915 Coca-Cola had to face competition and imitations. To fight against this, the company launched a call for tenders to many bottle manufacturers. The Root Glass Company of Terre Haute offers a bottle that allows instant recognition of a Coca-Cola bottle that even a blind person could identify. The contour bottle was patented and distributed in 1916.
The arrival in France
In 1919, Coca-Cola moved to France; in 1933, the famous drink was enjoyed for the first time on the terrace of the Café de l’Europe, near the Saint-Lazare train station in Paris.
