Jolly Cola facts for kids

Jolly Cola is a popular Danish soft drink. It was first made in 1959. The company 'Dansk Coladrik A/S' (Danish Coladrink Ltd) owns Jolly. Today, Brewery Vestfyen makes Jolly Cola. They also produce other Jolly drinks like Jolly Light and Jolly Orange. Jolly Time is a sports drink they make too.

Dansk Coladrik started in 1959. Their goal was to compete with American brands like Coca-Cola. Many US products were copied in Denmark before they arrived. This helped people feel a connection to the Danish versions. Dansk Coladrik is an independent company. However, Brewery Vestfyen owns most of its shares.

Until the 1980s, Jolly Cola was very popular. It held about 40% of the Danish cola market. This was special because in most countries, Coca-Cola is the biggest seller. Denmark was one of the few places where another cola had a larger market share.

Jolly Cola's old slogan was "Say Jolly to your cola!" In 2009, for its 50th birthday, it changed to "Free your taste." Today, bottles and cans say “EN ÆGTE DANSK ORIGINAL – SIDEN 1959.” This means "A REAL DANISH ORIGINAL - SINCE 1959."

The Story of Jolly Cola: How it Started

After World War II, many people saw Coca-Cola as a symbol of the US. As America's influence grew, so did Coca-Cola's popularity. But in Denmark, people had to wait until 1959 to buy Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola had been sold a little in Denmark since the 1930s. Then came the war, which meant less sugar was available. Later, a special tax was put on cola. This made cola as expensive as beer. So, it was hard for cola to sell well in Denmark. This tax happened because Danish breweries and mineral water makers worked to make it happen. They wanted to protect their own drinks.

After the tax started in 1953, only a small amount of cola was sold each year. Most of it was made by small Danish companies. This helped them avoid competition from the big American company. But people started to dislike the tax. By the late 1950s, only a few political groups still supported it. They had strong ties to the brewing industry.

When Danish drink makers realized they couldn't stop Coca-Cola anymore, they changed their plan. In January 1959, 18 breweries and mineral water companies joined together. They formed 'Dansk Coladrik A/S'. This idea came from big breweries like Carlsberg and Tuborg. They wanted to make a Danish cola to sell everywhere.

This new drink was called Jolly Cola. It was made to be very similar to Coca-Cola. This included the taste and how the company was set up. Jolly Cola had strong control over quality and marketing. It also had local bottling places, just like Coca-Cola. The new idea was: if you can't get rid of Coca-Cola, at least make sure Danes drink Danish cola.

This plan worked very well. In July 1959, the tax was removed. This started "the great Danish cola war." Jolly Cola quickly became very popular. In July 1959 alone, nine million bottles of Jolly Cola were sold. Coca-Cola sold five million bottles that month. This was a huge jump from just 40,000 to 50,000 bottles sold in all of 1958. The newness of the drink and a very good summer helped sales. When the market settled, about 40% of all cola sold in Denmark was Jolly Cola.

Jolly Cola kept this large market share until the 1980s.

Why Jolly Cola Was So Popular

There are a few reasons why Jolly Cola did so well. The most important reason was that 'Dansk Coladrik' could use the breweries' wide network. They had a great system for delivering drinks. They also knew a lot about the Danish market.

Another reason was that Coca-Cola was only sold in Copenhagen and a few big cities at first. It wasn't until the 1960s that Coca-Cola was available all over Denmark. This meant Jolly Cola was already well-known in many places when Coca-Cola finally arrived.

Third, Jolly Cola had great marketing. Dansk Coladrik put their cola in regular soft drink bottles. This made it easier for shops to handle the returnable bottle system. It also let them call Jolly Cola "The Big Cola." This slogan was similar to Pepsi's successful slogan from the 1930s. A Danish soft drink bottle held 25 cl. The famous Coca-Cola bottle only held 19 cl. Getting more for your money was important when soft drinks were seen as a luxury.

Jolly Cola Today

In the 1980s, Jolly Cola still had about 60% of the Danish cola market. But in the 1990s, sales started to drop. By 1999, sales were so low that the Danish Consumers Cooperative Society (Coop amba) stopped selling Jolly Cola. By 2002, Jolly Cola made up only 6% of the Danish soft drink market. This dropped to 2% in 2003.

In 2003, there was a disagreement between Brewery Vestfyen and the association of Danish breweries. Vestfyen thought the association was favoring Pepsi Cola over Jolly Cola. But in September 2003, Vestfyen took over all the shares related to Jolly Cola. They wanted to turn the brand around. This was a huge success! In 2004, Jolly Cola made up 25% of Coop amba's cola sales again.

Jolly Cola Labels and Design

Jolly's labels have changed over the years. But they always have a cool retro design. This classic look is still seen in the new logo. In the 1980s and 1990s, the back of Jolly's labels had fun things. These included quizzes, crossword puzzles, and common proverbs.

Images for kids

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  An outline of the first Jolly advertisement.

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  A photograph of a bottle of Jolly Cola taken in 2010.

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  Jolly labels through time.

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  Jolly music quiz from the 1980s.

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  Jolly crossword puzzle.