Even if they’ve nailed down a producer and supplier that can scale, which reading between the lines of the interview it sounds like they’ve struggled with in the past at least, you might not publicly find out who it’s produced by. The drinks industry producing things like fizzy and energy drinks is pretty secretive. Partly because people would be pissed if they knew what the markup was compared to the manufacturing cost, partly because recipes have always been closely guarded (as much for more for not revealing the crap in them as because they’re so valuable), and partly because the really big brands can pretty much wreck your business by blacklisting you, so producers with a bigger contract that they’re dependent on often don’t want to openly discuss the other brands they produce (often almost identical) product for that might eat into the big brands’ market share even a little bit.
This happens in other industries too of course. Things like packet-meals for supermarket chains, biscuits, and things like sunglasses are the same way.
Next time I pick up a can, I’ll have a look and see if there’s a current ‘produced by’ small print on the can.
Even if they’ve nailed down a producer and supplier that can scale, which reading between the lines of the interview it sounds like they’ve struggled with in the past at least, you might not publicly find out who it’s produced by. The drinks industry producing things like fizzy and energy drinks is pretty secretive. Partly because people would be pissed if they knew what the markup was compared to the manufacturing cost, partly because recipes have always been closely guarded (as much for more for not revealing the crap in them as because they’re so valuable), and partly because the really big brands can pretty much wreck your business by blacklisting you, so producers with a bigger contract that they’re dependent on often don’t want to openly discuss the other brands they produce (often almost identical) product for that might eat into the big brands’ market share even a little bit.
This happens in other industries too of course. Things like packet-meals for supermarket chains, biscuits, and things like sunglasses are the same way.
Next time I pick up a can, I’ll have a look and see if there’s a current ‘produced by’ small print on the can.