Unlike many other brands popular during the communist dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s, Traubisoda did not disappear from store shelves even in the decades following the regime change. Moreover, it was not possible to obtain not one, but two types of it. However, behind this was not any confusion about abundance, but the fact that two companies also claimed ownership of the soft drink, which led to twenty years of litigation. Although legal proceedings were closed and the licensing issue clarified, the company, finally emerging from a series of lawsuits, was recently terminated, putting an end to the so-called “Social Cola” brand, and launched half of it a century ago. Let’s see what Tropisoda’s nearly 50-year history has looked like.
The history of the brand is full of amazing twists and turns. Fifty years ago, in 1971, Badacsony State Farm began producing Traubisoda at its Balatonvilágos plant.“Traubisoda, a gift from nature!” – Said the propaganda slogan at the time.
The original owner of the Traubisoda brand was the Austrian wine company Lenz Moser in Hungary and several other countries (the name is also traps From the German word for grape).
We paid for the Austrian soft drink license with Hungarian wine
The Csongrád County newspaper reported on the novelty’s introduction as follows: Badacsony State Farm and Austrian company Moser introduced a new soft drink at the Danube Intercontinental Hotel on Tuesday. The drink called Traubisoda is made from sweet grape juice, sugar, citric acid and carbonated water, without chemical preservation, by pasteurization, so it can be stored indefinitely. Production will begin this week at Balatonaliga, Badacsony State Farm’s new plant equipped with Italian, Dutch and Hungarian machinery, under license from Austria’s Moser.”
Click on the image to see our gallery of Traubisoda history:
under contract The Hungarian state paid for the wine, 50,000 hectoliters in the first ten years, which were resold by the Austrians who traded their wine and soft drinks in 62 countries. The collaboration proved particularly fruitful, with Traubi selling at a dizzying pace: In the year of start-up (when the cost of a bottle was 3 fort at an average salary of 2,300 fort), 1.6 million bottles were manufactured, and this amount has almost doubled in 10 years.
A version of blue grapes and a pint was published, and folklore invented the long drink Gin-Traube, And the Traubi vitamin cocktail with egg yolk. During the 1970s and 1980s, the product was very popular, while state farms in Csány, Kunbaja and Debrecen participated in its production.
In an article published in 1981 on Traubi’s 10th birthday, Magyar Hírlap praised the famous soft drink: “If we recall the conditions in the soft drink business ten years ago, the situation was very unfortunate in today’s eyes. Although the production of domestic soft drinks has outlived the era of Bambi He switched to natural juices such as sour cherry juice, autumn juice, quince juice, etc., but the supply was mostly stagnant, especially when the greatest quantity was needed: in the summer… they were made on old production lines and in small quantities; Regular and bad.
The first major turning point in the history of Traubi came when Lenz Moser went bankrupt, and in 1986 the Hungarians signed an agreement with Warimpex AG, also in Austria.
Two decades of controversy began
However, the real problem began after the regime change, as demand fell sharply in the early 1990s, mainly due to increased competition. At the turn of the 80s and 90s, the Traubi plant in Badacsony and Balatonvilágos had the fate of most of the state-owned enterprises: The loss increased, then the liquidation beganParallel to privatization in 1992.
The Badacsony State Farm was privatized by the State Property Agency in 1992-93 and a tender was launched for it, as a result The plant was purchased – along with the licensing right – in February 1993 by the central company Salamon Berkowitz, founded in Hungary from the United States, Debrecen Kft., Then in 1995, the company sold the factory and brand to Traubi Hungária Rt. , also operated by Berkowitz, which began production of soft drinks.
Then came another turn, because in 1995 another company began producing “Traubi”. Namely, Ráthonyi Kft. Based in Debrecen, the right to manufacture it, after the bankruptcy of Lenz Moser, was purchased from the Austrian company Warimpex AG, which provides the flavor. As a result, it was possible to purchase soft drinks under the Traubisoda and Traubi brands in some periods, which, although licensed, were produced by two separate companies.
turn around! On the next page, we’ll tell you who won the legal battle for trademark ownership.
