British Cola Boasts ‘Original American Taste,’ but Is It Real Thing?

Britain’s biggest supermarket chain this week took on Coca-Cola Co., the world’s most famous trademark, by launching its own brand of soft drink in what the country’s media have dubbed a cola war.

J. Sainsbury unveiled the look-alike Classic Cola in its 341 stores nationwide alongside familiar Coca-Cola cans from the U.S. soft-drinks giant. Sainsbury’s brand boasts of “original American taste.”

The cola rivalry came as some of the world’s top-brand owners pressed for an additional clause in a Trade Marks Bill being debated by the British Parliament to ban retailers from marketing look-alike, own-label products.

Food and consumer product giants such as Swiss-based Nestle and America’s Procter & Gamble say they invest heavily in advertising to establish their branded goods only to see own-label copycat products packaged in a similar way.

Sainsbury’s cola is now out on the shelves in similar red-and-white packaging to Coca-Cola, threatening to dent Coca-Cola’s leading 60% share of Britain’s 670-million-pound ($1-billion) cola market.

“We believe it matches the leading brands,” Sainsbury spokeswoman Louise Platt said. She disputed suggestions that her company’s cola was designed to look like a counterfeit Coke, at a price of about 38 cents per can, contrasted with 48 cents for Coke.

“The lettering’s different,” Platt insisted.

But the white word Coke on the red can of Coca-Cola appears quite similar to the word Cola on the Sainsbury version, both in size and style. Both cans have pictures of bottles that look like old Coke bottles. The red-on-white cans of Diet Coke and Sainsbury’s Diet Classic Cola also could be mixed up by someone who fails to look closely.

About two-thirds of Sainsbury turnover is now in own-label products, which are cheaper than main-brand alternatives. Importantly for Sainsbury, Britain’s most profitable supermarket chain, its own brands have no hefty advertising budgets and are more profitable than major brands.

Coca-Cola is not taking the challenge lying down after it saw its share of the North American cola market come under heavy fire from own-label Canadian manufacturer Cott Corp., the group also behind the production of Sainsbury’s Classic Cola.