In 2009 Coca-Cola bought an 18% stake in a "craft" fruit juice start-up in London called Innocent. Within four years, Coke had gobbled up more than 90% of Innocent. It made millions of pounds for the founders, who started out as friends at Cambridge University and then famously quit their city jobs in 1999 to start the business.In 2001, after 10 years’ working in Big Corporate, I helped a friend start a fresh fruit juice business in London. I was curious, and it was exciting to be part of a start-up culture.Sure, Innocent was a direct competitor, but in truth we felt as though we were allies in the crusade to get fresh juice to the public, when most people guzzled nutrition-free fizzy drinks. We’d banter with the Innocent guys and frequently see them pitching to the same distributors we were trying to sign-up.Predictably, a lot of the media didn’t like the Innocent/Coke deal. Some said Innocent had done a deal with the devil. For me, I was just annoyed that Coke approached them, not...
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