Pepsi tips off Coke over secret recipe theft

by Daniel Farey-Jones, Brand Republic 06-Jul-06, 12:00

LONDON - Pepsi has apparently passed up the chance to get its hands on one of Coca-Cola's secret recipes by calling in the police, who have charged a Coke employee with stealing trade secrets.

PepsiCo was offered a new product sample and confidential documents in May, in a letter from someone calling himself 'Dirk'. But instead of taking the bait it tipped off Coca-Cola, which brought in the FBI.

The two companies, who built their rival brands by creating iconic ad campaigns designed to keep their products at top of the cola market, have indulged in rare co-operation following the arrests.

Coca-Cola's chairman and chief executive Neville Isdrell, said: "I would like to express our sincere appreciation to PepsiCo for alerting us to this attack."

Dave DeCecco, a PepsiCo spokesman, said: "Competition can sometimes be fierce, but also must be fair and legal."

It was not clear which product the information related to, but Coca-Cola said its top-secret formula for Coca-Cola had not been involved.

The FBI arrested and charged three people including Coca-Cola employee Joya Williams, after an undercover sting operation at Atlanta airport.

An FBI agent gave a suspected associate of Williams $30,000 in a yellow Girl Scout Cookie box for the product sample and promised him $1.5m for more information.

The three defendants are due to appear in court in Atlanta today.

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