Coca Cola

2 Pages 452 Words

John Pemberton invented Coca Cola in 1886. He was a pharmacist who worked in Atlanta, Georgia. John made patent medicines and produced Coca Cola. His bookkeeper, Frank Robinson thought of the name because it was made of coca leaves and kola nuts. In John’s first year of selling Coca Cola he only made fifty dollars. John became very ill and he sold two-thirds of his company in 1888. John died. A man named Asa Candler, an Atlanta wholesale druggist, and his brother bought The Coca Cola Company for 2,300 dollars in 1891.

Coca Cola was registered for a patented trademark in 1893. Since it was made with cocaine, Asa reduced the amount of coca leaves because of the dangers of cocaine. Asa only had a patent on the name and not the drink syrup itself. Other companies made soda with coca nuts such as the Pepsi company, which was Coca Cola’s major competitor. Asa spent 11,000 dollars on advertisement. The logo was shown on walls, posters, calendars and drinking glasses. A candy store owner installed bottled machines which had bottled coke but before it was only sold in soda fountains. In 1894 the company opened its first production plant in Dallas, Texas. In 1915 Asa Candler retired from the coca cola company and into politics. He passed it on to his children. Later he was elected mayor of Atlanta.

In 1899 Benjamin Thomas and Joseph Whitehead, from Chattanooga, Tennessee, bought rights to distribute Coke syrup to bottlers for only one dollar. Asa saw very little profit in bottling and wanted to give up that part of the business. Benjamin and Joseph split their partnership because of time and money. In 1919, the whole Candler family sold the Coca Cola Company to Ernest Woodruff for twenty-five million dollars. In 1923, Ernest’s son, Robert, was elected the companies president. Robert made two new slogans which were “The pause that refreshes” and “It’s the real thing”.

During World War II, Ernest Woodruff increased Coke�...