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Coke Pulls Plug on Coca-Cola Blak |
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Friday, 31 August 2007 |
If you like Coca-Cola Blak, you'd better grab some before it's gone. Coke has discontinued U.S. sales of the blended Coca-Cola and coffee concoction it introduced 17 months ago in 8-ounce bottles wrapped in mocha-brown plastic, the company confirmed Thursday.
Coca-Cola spokesman Scott Williamson said the company's bottlers will continue making and selling Coca-Cola Blak until concentrate supplies run out. He said he didn't know how long that will take.
Sales are expected to continue in France, Spain, Canada, the Czech Republic and other countries overseas.
Coke spent two years developing Coca-Cola Blak to try to make inroads into the growing coffee and premium beverage markets.
Coke didn't announce its decision; it was reported Thursday in industry newsletter Beverage Digest.
Why didn't the niche beverage catch on? Coke won't say for sure.
Coca-Cola Blak, which has sold for as much as $1.99 a bottle, may have been too pricey for its target consumer, described by a Coke marketing executive last year as the over-30 "savvy, sophisticated achiever."
Or maybe it was taste.
"It is not for everyone," Coke marketing executive Katie Bayne told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution when the drink was launched in April 2006. "It is an adult cola taste."
Copyright 2007 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |
