Just weeks after Burger King said it would phase out frozen carbonated beverages, including Frozen Coke, Coca-Cola announced that the fast food chain has agreed to keep selling the frozen drink.
Burger King initially said it was dropping frozen carbonated beverages after determining the products “were not strategically relevant to the long-term vision for the Burger King brand.” That announcement came shortly after Coca-Cola admitted that some of its employees had tampered with a Burger King/Frozen Coke promotion to artificially inflate the results.
Atlanta-based Coca-Cola President and Chief Operating Officer Steve Heyer sent a letter to Burger King CEO Brad Blum apologizing for the incident and the two hashed things out at a meeting last week, according to media reports.
The soft drink giant admitted that it had padded the test results of a Miami, FL-based Burger King promotion in Virginia in 2000. The allegation first surfaced in a lawsuit by former Coca-Cola employee Matthew Whitley (Xtra, June 19).
According to the lawsuit, after a three-week test of frozen beverages offered with Burger King value meals went poorly, members of Coca-Cola’s fountain division hired a man for $10,000 to take hundreds of children to Burger King to buy the meals.
Whitley also accused Coca-Cola of inflating earnings, discriminating against women and minorities and allowing contamination of its drinks. Coca-Cola has denied the charges.
The allegations, however, have prompted the United States Attorney’s office for the Northern District of Georgia to open an investigation of Coca-Cola (Xtra, July 15) and the Securities and Exchange Commission has requested documents as part of an informal inquiry.
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