I read the article and I am still not sure exactly why the change and why the fuss. It seems to be just a change of name and a 14 person downsize.
I guess you have to live here to appreciate it. The drink was the Dublin plant’s own, in that it kept the old-fashioned recipe going by using sugar when years ago all the others went to sucrose, or whatever they use. Now that it is so popular, Dublin Dr. Pepper bottling is having to give it up to the parent company and take their name off the product. The cans even had a picture and story of Mr. Kloster (now deceased) and how it all began. Granted, much of it has been bottled in another city now and shipped here, due to the antiquated plant couldn’t possible keep up with the demand. But it likely wouldn’t even be marketed if Dublin hadn’t kept the tradition going way back when.
DDP was ‘violating’ distribution contracts DPSG had set up with other bottlers in nearby territories.
The problem was that DDP was selling like hotcakes via the internet, and shops were requesting the DDP instead of the regular DP sold by DPSG. Owners of the neighboring territories took the dispute to corporate, who took them to court.
Legally, DPSG had them dead to rights. It didn’t matter however that DPSG couldn’t have gotten the parties together to explain the vast goodwill that will have been lost with the closure of DDP in Dublin.
Exacerbating the problem is that DPSG is making a mint. They have so much cash they don’t know what to do with it all, and as such nobody saw this loss of goodwill as a problem, except maybe their accountants, who may or may not write down the loss in ‘goodwill’ in their 10-K.
Further exacerbating things is the fact that DPSG has never sold a bottle of soda outside of North America, even though they have 7 non-cola drinks holding the number one market position in their categories. Most of their production is actually purchased from their competitors, Coke and Pepsi.
Strategically, DPSG isn’t the best run place on earth, but they have outstanding brand managers.