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A Bold Idea
Mississippi shop owner Joseph A. Biedenharn began bottling Coca‑Cola after he was impressed by its sales. He sold the drink to his customers in a common glass bottle called a Hutchinson.. He was aiming to supply the product to everyone in the world. -
Birth of the Contour Bottle
Bottlers worried that a straight-sided bottle wasn’t distinctive enough and that Coca‑Cola was becoming easily confused with ‘copycat’ brands. Glass manufacturers were approached to come up with a unique bottle design for Coca‑Cola. They used the famous, cantour shape, for their bottle. -
Six Packs
Six pack carriers of Coca‑Cola bottles were introduced to encourage people to take their drinks home. This was aimed towards adults so they could take many home to their children at home, or their friends. -
Bottle Overtakes Fountain
This was the time when the bottled drink was introduced as a fountain soda. This allowed people to order it with their food and be able to get a refill without getting another bottle. -
Packaging Innovations
For the first time, people could buy different sized bottles of Coca‑Cola. As well as the traditional 6.5 ounce contour bottle, shops also started selling larger 10, 12 and 26 ounce versions. Now, instead of people buying many little bottles, they could buy fewer bigger bottles. -
Recyclable Bottles
Coca‑Cola introduced the world to the two litre PET plastic bottle. It became popular for a lot of reasons: it doesn’t break; it’s re-sealable, lightweight and recyclable. This allowed children to drink it and not break when and if they drop the bittle. -
Reducing Waste
Coca‑Cola introduced the ultra-glass Contour Bottle designed for improved impact resistance, reduced weight and cost. These bottles are 40 per cent stronger and 20 per cent lighter than the original Coca‑Cola Contour Bottle – saving approximately 52,000 metric tons of glass in 2006. -
Green Bottles
Coca‑Cola launched the innovative PlantBottle in the US, a completely recyclable PET container made with 30 per cent plant materials, including sugar cane extracts. -
Your Name on our Bottles
Coca‑Cola swaps its iconic logo with Great Britain’s most popular names for the summer-long ‘Share a Coke’ campaign. This mad many people want to get a bottle because their name was on it and it attracted their eye to it.