Category Big Business1

               It all began in 1893, with Caleb Bradham inventing a new formula for a sweetened drink. His new drink was initially called ‘Brad’s drink’. As the business caught on, he looked for a quirkier name and settled with Pepsi-Cola.

               Though Pepsi-Cola was a successful brand, Caleb Bradham eventually went bankrupt. The company, after passing through the hands of several investors was finally bought by Charles G Guth. This happened in 1931 and after years of hardships, Pepsi made an amazing comeback in the 1960s.

                Pepsi became the first US product to be produced and sold within the USSR in 1974. The company diversified further with the purchase of Pizza Hut Inc., Taco Bell Inc., KFC and Seven-Up International. The brand was later renamed as PepsiCo and acquired more brands including Tropicana, Quaker, Lipton and Gatorade. PepsiCo now serves beverages and snacks to the whole world.

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          Have you ever thought that it’s too late to begin something? Well, if Colonel Sanders thought so, we wouldn’t have the world’s most famous fried chicken-KFC!

          A forty-year-old Colonel Sanders began selling fried chicken for hungry travellers after the Second World War. He had a store near a gas station and soon travellers started to fill their tummies along with their petrol tanks, making his chicken famous. He later franchised his business across America, but his recipe remained a secret. He also patented a method of preparation that involved frying chicken under pressure.

          By 1964, his franchise became too large for him to manage and he sold KFC to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown, Jr. and Jack C. Massey. After a series of ownership changes, KFC is currently owned by Yum Brands. It is the world’s second-largest restaurant chain after McDonald’s and Colonel Sanders still remains the iconic face of KFC.

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          In the 1930s, one of the issues that troubled the Brazilian government was their surplus coffee produce. They did not know what to do with huge sacks of unsold coffee until Nestle offered them a solution. Thanks to Max Morgenthaler and three years of his research, we now enjoy the invigorating flavour of Nescafe.

          Max was committed to come up with an instant coffee mixture that retained its natural flavour, but was easy to make. He succeeded in creating a powdered variety that made tasty coffee by simply mixing water. He named it Nescafe by combining the first three letters of Nestle with the word Cafe.

          The Second World War was a major game changer for Nescafe. Nescafe became a part of the food rations of the US forces and they loved it. The brand grew through the 1940s with export to many countries. Today, Nescafe is enjoyed in 180 countries.

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          Pharmacist Henri Nestle was troubled thinking about malnutrition that affected many babies in Switzerland. Many mothers were not able to breastfeed their babies as they were away because of work. He worked on creating something that would be tasty and nutritious at the same time.

          After a considerable number of trials, Henri came out with a formula made of milk, flour and sugar. He tested this on a malnourished child whose health improved after its consumption.

          This happened in the 1860s. Soon, Henri opened a factory to produce this infant formula- Farine Lacte Henri Nestle. Later, he sold the company to Jules Monneret who worked for the further growth of the company.

          Around the same time, another company known as the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company competed with Nestle, but the competition did not last long. The two merged in 1905. A year later, they began making chocolates.

          Nestle withstood both World War I and II. By 1945, it became an international brand with factories in several Latin American countries and continued to prosper.

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         Julius Maggi was a Swiss miller who took over his father’s business. It was the 1880s; Europe was increasingly industrialized with more and more women joining the workforce. These working women found it difficult to get enough time to cook nutritious food for their families. Julius Maggi wanted to provide healthy and delicious food supplies for these working women.

          He worked to create new flour from pulses. After two years of research, he introduced powdered pea and bean flours in 1884, followed by one of the world’s first instant soups. His products were a huge success that revolutionized the way millions cooked in the years that followed.

          Julius Maggi invested a lot of money in advertising and exploited the possibilities of advertising on public transport. Maggi vans gave out free samples of hot soups and also did poster campaigns. A brand like Maggi was quick to grow and become international. In 1947, it was acquired by Nestle, another Swiss brand with the same visionary approach towards food.

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          Dominos is the first thing that comes to our mind when we think of pizza. This international brand started when two brothers James and Tom Monaghan decided to run an outlet of DomiNick’s, a chain pizza restaurant. Soon, James, who was not so interested in the pizza business, sold his share to Tom for a second-hand Volkswagen Beetle.

          Tom later purchased two more pizzerias. Though Tom wanted to use the brand name DomiNick’s, the original owner forbade him to do so. One of Tom’s helpers Jim Kennedy suggested the name Domino’s which he accepted without a second thought. Thus, Domino’s Pizza was born in 1965.

          For the next fifteen years, Domino’s followed a traditional model of business; they only delivered pizzas and had a limited menu. Their menus started including non-pizza items only from the 1990s. Since then, there have been more innovations like dine-in restaurants and pizza cars.

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