Frankie's

Frankie's Olde Soft Drink Company

Industry	Beverage
Founded	2006
Founder	Mike Schmidt
Headquarters	Balgowan, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Area served	South Africa
Products	Soft drinks
Revenue	R18 million (2010/2011)[1]
Slogan	The taste of yesteryear
Website	www.frankiessoftdrinks.com

Two flavours from Frankie's range, on the right is a bottle of root beer on the left is a bottle of ginger beer.

Frankie's is a South African soft drink company based in Balgowan, KwaZulu-Natal. It specialises in the production of niche soft drinks that have the same or similar taste to soft drinks from or before the 1950s.

Woolworths controversy

In early 2012 the South African Advertising Standards Authority ruled that Woolworths’ vintage cold drink range was an imitation of Frankie’s soft drink range. It was ruled that Woolworths intentionally copied the phrase "Good Old Fashioned Soft Drinks" to promote its own line of beverages thereby infringing on the rights of Frankie's Soft Drinks. Woolworths agreed to removed the range immediately.^[2] The controversy got widespread coverage in the South African media.^[3] After the event Woolworths South Africa's CEO Ian Moir publicly stated that "Public opinion is so much against us and, whether we're right or whether we're wrong, customer opinion is against us."

References

1. Nicolson, Greg (1 February 2012). "Frankie's vs. Woolworths: Good old-fashioned David-and-Goliath battle". Daily Maverick. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
2. Peters, Sherlissa (2 February 2012). "Woolworths to remove entire soft drinks range". iol. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
3. "Did Woolworths steal Frankie’s soft drink idea…here’s the definitive comparison, you decide [pics]". Life is Savage. 20 December 2011. Retrieved 6 June 2012.