SBB: No more Coca-Cola

Transportation, Travel and Trips
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The Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) has removed Coca-Cola from on-board catering with immediate effect, Blick reported on Thursday. The American drink will be replaced by the Swiss product Vivi Kola. “We wanted to focus on a Swiss brand,” SBB spokeswoman Carmen Hefti said in the newspaper.

The price of Vivi Kola is 5.4 francs, the same as that of Coca-Cola. Unlike Migros and Denner, which temporarily boycotted the Swiss bottler of Coca-Cola due to the price increase, SBB’s decision is sustainable, the spokeswoman said. When contacted, Coca-Cola Switzerland did not react to this decision."

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SBB catering is such a rip-off, I think the impact for C-C would be tiny.

No doubt they have greater margins with Vivi Kola.I knew someone who worked their for a while, they have a somewhat arrogant business model. If they really think travellers, especially foreign tourists, are going to be impressed by this, they have another thing coming.

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Never even heard of Vivi Kola, but I don’t shop in the big stores. Aldi and Lidl are my go to’s. Not really a cola drinker either and if I do I get Dr Pepper.

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I suppose it makes sense from a branding perspective and also to help sell Swiss products.

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Vivi Kola was founded in Switzerland in 1938 and became the iconic Swiss cola.
We have set ourselves the goal of reviving the beautiful Swiss traditional brand in a modern and fresh way – with great respect for its long and proud history. More than 2500 restaurants already have Vivi Kola in their product assortment. Join in and support this proudly Swiss premium product.

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Foreign tourists are already impressed by the absence of ice in glasses.

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yeah well, I was gonna suggest SBB doesn’t store too much of it. I remember Vivi Cola from years back and did not like it.
Still, I’m impressed to read how old the recipe is. On the other hand, if they’re so proud of using the original recipe I may still not like it.

I could approach it like I did green aspargus and brokkoli (no fake news, I still couldn’t bring myself to try brokkoli again) and see if my taste buds changed their mind.

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Also, plenty of foreign tourists come from neighboring countries, they’ll go for coffee, beer or wine. And, I don’t see parents buying Cola to their children. So, who buys Cola in the train?

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The curious ones who would like to explore the country’s peculiarities? They might even sell more of this stuff than they did Coca Cola.
Even if there might be only first-time-buyers :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

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I rarely travel by train, but I am a heavy drinker of coca-cola. Heck, I drink it more than water.

The taste of vivicola is vile. I regularly send it back at a restaurant when I order a coca-cola and they bring vivi-cola. Sometimes they take offense (oh but it’s swiss!) other times they agree with me (but management orders this). Either way, no thanks.

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For the can that costs 0.95 CHF in shops?

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Russian tourists would feel immediately at home, because they also have an alternative Cola on the Russian market instead of Coca and Pepsi.

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Don’t Canadians have one too by now?

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This.

Also, only the IC trains have a dedicated shop. If one wants to drink something in an IR or S train, one has to bring it along.

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We have hot and cold drinks and snacks in IR.

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Really? I’m the worst kind of customer, the one who doesn’t even know there’s a shop aboard.

Will look for it next time I’m on the IR37 haha

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To be honest, they haven’t really thought this through - Carbonated drinks are like cigarettes in that people are very brand-loyal and it takes a lot of persuasion to get them to switch.

If SBB were really concerned about pushing local Swiss products - which is a very noble thing to do then they would have more luck with the sort of products with no brand loyalty such as lunch-packs/sandwiches with local cheeses and dried meats and perhaps local yoghurts.
Keep the Coca-cola but perhaps push selling Rivella too.

I think this has probably got nothing to do with pushing Swiss products but something more monetary in nature.

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I’m afraid it’s exclusive to the new Flirt Traverso model of the train where the coffee & snack station is a part of an original design.

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sounds like tinder on wheels.

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I wonder who buys coca-cola these days. It never tasted good, but it used to be the only soft drink with caffeine so sells were driven by caffeine addiction not by good taste. I can see people going for energetic drinks instead. When I need a dose of caffeine I also go either for coffee or energy drink.