Industry Beverage Founder Mike Schmidt Products Soft drinks | Founded 2006 Area served South Africa | |
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Headquarters Balgowan, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa | ||
Frankie's is a South African soft drink company based in Balgowan, KwaZulu-Natal. It specialises in the production of niche soft drinks that have the same or similar taste to soft drinks from or before the 1950s.
Woolworths controversy
In early 2012 the South African Advertising Standards Authority ruled that Woolworths’ vintage cold drink range was an imitation of Frankie’s soft drink range. It was ruled that Woolworths intentionally copied the phrase "Good Old Fashioned Soft Drinks" to promote its own line of beverages thereby infringing on the rights of Frankie's Soft Drinks. Woolworths agreed to remove the range immediately. The controversy got widespread coverage in the South African media. After the event Woolworths South Africa's CEO Ian Moir publicly stated that "Public opinion is so much against us and, whether we're right or whether we're wrong, customer opinion is against us."