Jolly Cola is an original Danish soft drink dating back to 1959. Jolly is owned by the limited company 'Dansk Coladrik A/S' (Danish Coladrink Ltd). Jolly Cola is now produced by Brewery Vestfyen, which also produces Jolly Light, Jolly Time (a sports drink), and Jolly Orange.
Dansk Coladrik was founded in 1959 to compete with the American brands before they hit the danish markets, especially Coca-Cola. Many products from the United States were copied in this way shortly before they were introduced in Denmark, so people already had a connection with the Danish brand. Dansk Coladrink is an independent company owned by the stock holders; however, Brewery Vestfyen owns a majority of stock in the company. Up until the 1980s, Jolly Cola had a market share of about 40% of the Danish cola market. This was extraordinary, as Denmark is one of a few countries in the world, where another cola than the original Coca-Cola has had a larger market share.
Jolly Cola's longtime slogan "Say Jolly to your cola!" was changed to "Free your taste" on its 50th birthday in 2009. The bottles and cans today has the slogan “EN ÆGTE DANSK ORIGINAL – SIDEN 1959” meaning "A REAL DANISH ORIGINAL - SINCE 1959"
History
Following World War II, many countries in the world viewed Coca-Cola as synonymous with the US and an American life-style, and as the US developed and increased its influence on society, so did Coca-Cola. In the meantime, the Danish population still had to wait until 1959, before they could buy a bottle of Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola had been marketed with moderate success from the middle of the 1930s, but then came a war, followed by rationing of sugar and finally a special tax on cola, which made the soft drink just as expensive as a beer, and therefore kept it out of the Danish market. The taxation came as a result of skilled lobbyism, carried out by breweries and producers of mineral water – and it worked as intended.
Following the implementation of the tax in 1953, only 10,000 litres of cola soft drinks were sold in Denmark a year, primarily produced by minor Danish producers of mineral water, avoiding the competition from the American giant. However, the opposition against the taxation grew, and by the end of the 1950s it was only the communists and conservative powers in Danish politics, which had close connections to the brewing industry, that wanted a prohibitive surtax on what a member of the Danish Communist Party called “a bitter cup”.
An outline of the first Jolly advertisement.
When the Danish producers finally realised that they could not keep Coca-Cola out of the Danish market anymore, they quickly changed their strategy. In January 1959 18 breweries and producers of mineral water went together to form ‘Dansk Coladrik A/S’. This initiative was instigated by Carlsberg and Tuborg so as to produce an original Danish cola that was to be sold nationwide. The soft drink was named Jolly Cola and was an all-out copy product. This regarded not only the taste, but also the organisation behind the product, which completely resembled Coca-Cola[citation needed], especially in terms of having a strong and centralised control of quality and marketing, combined with local bottling departments. Suddenly, the strategy seemed to be that if you could not get rid of Coca-Cola, the least you could do was to ensure that the Danish population drank Danish produced cola[citation needed]. To a great extent, this was a success, and when the taxation was removed and ‘the great Danish cola war’ broke out in July 1959, Jolly Cola actually conquered a significant part of the new market.
In July 1959 alone, nine million bottles of Jolly Cola were sold, compared to five million bottles of Coca-Cola. This was an incredible number compared to an annual sale of 40 to 50,000 bottles in 1958. Naturally, the sheer interest of the news explains a part of the increased sale, but so does the summer of 1959, which was exceptionally good. Nevertheless, when the market finally stabilised, roughly every fifth sold soft drink in Denmark was a cola, and approximately 40% was Jolly Cola.
Jolly Cola maintained this market share until the 1980s.
A photograph of a bottle of Jolly Cola taken in 2010.
There are several explanations for Jolly Cola’s success. However, the most important one is that ‘Dansk Coladrik’ could make use of the brewing industry’s comprehensive network, distributing system and knowledge of the Danish market. Another reason is that it was only possible to buy Coca-Cola in Copenhagen and a few larger cities in Jutland in the early years of the hectic ‘cola war’. Hence, it was not until the 1960s that it was possible to buy Coca-Cola nationwide. This ensured that Jolly Cola was a well-established product in many places when Coca-Cola finally ventured into the market. Thirdly, it was due to great marketing. Dansk Coladrik had tapped their cola in regular soft drink bottles. This made it easier for the retail industry to administer the returnable bottle system, but it also made it possible to launch Jolly Cola as “The Big Cola” (a slogan that not coincidentally resembled Pepsi’s successful 1930s US slogan for its big 12 ounce bottle). A Danish soft drink bottle contained exactly 25 cl, whereas the characteristic ‘chubby’ Coca-Cola bottle only contained 19 cl. The argument about value for your money was important in a time where a soft drink was considered to be a luxury product. (The story of Jolly Cola is based on the work of Klaus Petersen and Niels Arne Sørensen from the Institute of History, Culture and Society).
Today’s Jolly Cola
In the 1980s Jolly Cola still had around 60% of the Danish cola market, but in the 1990s they experienced a decrease in sales. In 1999 the failing sales numbers forced the Danish Consumers Cooperative Society (Coop amba) to remove Jolly Cola from its shelves. Following this, Jolly Cola only made up 6% of the total Danish soft drink market in 2002, which was again reduced to 2% in 2003. In the same year, a trial between the brewery Vestfyen and the association of Danish breweries almost compromised Jolly Cola’s existence. Vestfyen believed that the association of Danish breweries would rather market Pepsi Cola at the expense of Jolly Cola. In September 2003, however, Vestfyen took over all stocks dealing with the struggling soft drink so as to engage in a turn-around of the product. This became an immense success, and in 2004 Jolly Cola made up 25% of Coop amba's cola sales.
Labels
Jolly’s labels have changed a couple of times during the years. However, what they have in common is a retro design. It is the same look/design which is reappearing in the new logo. In the 1980s and 1990s there were quizzes, crossword puzzles and common proverbs on the back of Jolly’s labels.
Jolly labels through time.Jolly music quiz from the 1980s.Jolly crossword puzzle.
Cola is a carbonated soft drink flavored with vanilla, cinnamon, citrus oils, and other flavorings. Cola became popular worldwide after the American pharmacist John Stith Pemberton invented Coca-Cola, a trademarked brand, in 1886, which was imitated by other manufacturers. Most colas originally contained caffeine from the kola nut, leading to the drink's name, though other sources of caffeine are generally used in modern formulations. The Pemberton cola drink also contained a coca plant extract. His non-alcoholic recipe was inspired by the coca wine of pharmacist Angelo Mariani, created in 1863.
Irn-Bru is a Scottish carbonated soft drink, often described as "Scotland's other national drink". Introduced in 1901, the drink is produced in Westfield, Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, by A.G. Barr of Glasgow. As well as being sold throughout the United Kingdom, Irn-Bru is available throughout the world and can usually be bought where there is a significant community of people from Scotland. The brand also has its own tartan. It has been the top-selling soft drink in Scotland for over a century, competing directly with global brands such as Coca-Cola.
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink with a cola flavor, manufactured by PepsiCo. As of 2023, Pepsi is the second most valuable soft drink brand worldwide behind Coca-Cola; the two share a long-standing rivalry in what has been called the "cola wars".
New Coke was the unofficial name of a reformulation of the soft drink Coca-Cola, introduced by The Coca-Cola Company in April, 1985. It was renamed Coke II in 1990, and discontinued in July 2002.
Fanta is an American-owned brand of fruit-flavored carbonated soft drink created by Coca-Cola Deutschland under the leadership of German businessman Max Keith. There are more than 200 flavors worldwide. Fanta originated in Germany as a Coca-Cola alternative in 1941 due to the American trade embargo of Nazi Germany, which affected the availability of Coca-Cola ingredients. Fanta soon dominated the German market with three million cases sold in 1943. The current formulation of Fanta, with orange flavour, was developed in Italy in 1955.
The Cola wars are the long-time rivalry between soft drink producers The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo, who have engaged in mutually-targeted marketing campaigns for the direct competition between each company's product lines, especially their flagship colas, Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Beginning in the late 1970s and into the 1980s, the competition escalated until it became known as the cola wars.
Kofola is a carbonated soft drink produced by the eponymous Czech company, which is headquartered in Krnov, Czech Republic. It is the principal rival of Coca-Cola and Pepsi in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The company is one of the leading soft drink producers and distributors in Central and Eastern Europe.
Orange soft drinks are carbonated orange drinks.
Evoca Cola is a cola-flavoured carbonated soft drink. It is produced by Evoca Drinks, a London-based soft drinks company, and is sold in the United Kingdom, The Channel Islands, Europe and the Far East.
Campa Cola is a soft drink brand in India. It was a market leader in the Indian soft drink market in the 1970s and 1980s in most regions of India until the advent of the foreign players Pepsi and Coca-Cola after the liberalisation policy of the P. V. Narasimha Rao government in 1991.
Vess Soda is a brand of soft drink manufactured and distributed primarily in the St. Louis, Missouri, United States metropolitan area and recently in Canada through Dollarama and Giant Tiger locations. The company was founded in 1916 by Sylvester Jones, who arrived at the Vess brand name from his nickname.
Ajegroup, commonly known as AJE, is a Peruvian multinational company dedicated to the manufacture, distribution and sale of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. The company was founded by the Añaños-Jerí Family in 1988 in Ayacucho, Peru. It is known for its flagship products Kola Real and Big Cola.
Dr Pepper is a carbonated soft drink. It was created in the 1880s by pharmacist Charles Alderton in Waco, Texas, and first served around 1885. Dr Pepper was first nationally marketed in the United States in 1904. It is now also sold in Europe, Asia, North and South America. In Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, Dr Pepper is sold as an imported good. Variants include Diet Dr Pepper and, beginning in the 2000s, a line of additional flavors.
Cavan Cola was a brand of soft drink produced by Cavan Mineral Water Ltd. in the town of Cavan, Ireland. It was introduced in 1958, and was sold in 250 ml and 710 ml bottles in shops in counties Cavan, Monaghan, Sligo, Leitrim, Louth, Donegal and Meath. The product proved so popular there that it went national in the early 1990s. In 1993, the still family-run Cavan Mineral Water Ltd. was taken over by Finches, who began phasing out Cavan Cola. By 2001, Cavan Cola had disappeared from most shops, even in County Cavan.
Embotelladora Don Jorge S.A.C. is a corporation involved in the manufacturing, distribution and marketing of nonalcoholic and alcoholic beverages based in Lima, Peru. Its headquarters are located in the San Miguel District, Lima.
Enhanced water is a category of beverages that are marketed as water with added ingredients, such as natural or artificial flavors, sugar, sweeteners, vitamins and minerals. Most enhanced waters are lower in calories than non-diet soft drinks.
Sunkist is a brand of primarily orange-flavored soft drinks that launched in 1979. Sunkist primarily competes with The Coca-Cola Company's Fanta brand and Keurig Dr Pepper's Orange Crush brand.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
