Coke secret formula gets 1st new home since 1925

Atlanta: The Coca-Cola Co. has made its secret formula the centrepiece of a new exhibit at its corporate museum, ditching the confines of the bank vault where the list of ingredients had been stored since 1925. The world’s largest beverage maker said today a new vault containing the formula will be on display for visitors to its World of Coca-Cola museum in downtown Atlanta. However, the formula itself, which dates back to 1886, will remain hidden from view.[caption id=“attachment_151662” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Results of a hidden formula. Reuters”]  [/caption] Atlanta-based Coca-Cola said the decision to move the formula from a vault at SunTrust Banks Inc. had nothing to with the bank’s decision in 2007 to begin selling its long-held stake in Coca-Cola. The bank, which provided underwriting services to Coca-Cola when it went public in 1919 and received some of Coca-Cola’s first publicly traded stock, at one time held more than 48 million Coca-Cola shares. “The time has come for our secret formula to come back home,” CEO Muhtar Kent told employees and city and state officials who were on hand for the unveiling of the exhibit. Coca-Cola is all about marketing, and that was on full display at the museum today. Attendees watched a video of Kent placing a metal box, which the company says contains the formula, inside a five-foot high safe several days ago and locking it. Visitors were then escorted through a room full of pictures and historical information about the founding of the company and the secret formula. That display leads into a cylindrical room, where images of glasses filling with Coca-Cola splash across the walls before lights come on and reveal a giant, metal-encased vault with a keypad and a hand-imprint scanner. AP