Major L for Pepsi, which owned KFC from 1986 to 1997. Meanwhile, Coca-Cola with another huge fast food account. Its biggest customer is McDonald's, which buys $1B+ of product a year (mostly syrup). Coca-Cola literally has an exec position of President, The McDonald's Division.

McDonald’s actually does have best-tasting Coke in the world and here a few reasons: ▫️Coca-Cola ships Coke/Diet Coke syrup to McDonald’s in specially-designed 75 gallon stainless steel containers and pumped directly into store machines. ▫️ Metal preserves taste better than plastic bags, which is how every other customers gets their syrup (Coca-Cola reps are also forbidden from selling syrup at a lower cost than what McDonald’s pays). ▫️Syrup machines frequently tweaked and calibrated to ensure taste is consistently strong since McDonald’s pours drinks with certain amount of ice which dilutes when melts. ▫️McDonald’s has specialized water filtration system at every location (tastes better) and cooling system (drink always consistently same cold temperature and cooler water holds more carbonation aka fizz) Coca-Cola sends employees to do frequent quality checks at McDonald’s locations. The McDonald’s and Coca-Cola partnership dates back to 1955 and goes deep. McDonald’s is the largest restaurant partner ($1B+ a year) and only company within Coca-Cola that has its own division. When Coca-Cola reps are asked about the largest markets, they often say “US, Japan, Germany and McDonald’s.” *** Screenshot from WSJ: wsj.com/business/hospitality… Good NYT article from 2014: nytimes.com/2014/05/16/busin…