First it was Dublin Dr Pepper, now another Texas favorite from the Dublin Bottling Works may be in jeopardy.
A special recipe Big Red mix made with pure cane sugar was sold through the Dublin plant, but buyers like Jack Perkins, who owns Maple and Motor, won't be able to serve the drink after current supplies run out.
Perkins told the Dallas Observer he's "bummed" by the decision.
"Big Red is surging, and the cane sugar Big Red, since I've had it, is selling better than the regular Big Red. So I'm disappointed," Perkins said.
Austin-based Big Red told NBC 5 that the Dublin bottler never had the rights to sell Big Red in the DFW area because bottling contracts prevent them from selling products in another bottler's territory. The company sells a "Retro Big Red" flavor that contains real sugar.
It's a situation that's all too familiar to the Dublin plant, which recently had a similar issue with their bottling of a cane sugar mix of Dr Pepper.
Plano-based Dr Pepper-Snapple reached a settlement with the plant earlier this year after they say the plant violated territorial selling arrangements and used an unauthorized version of their logo.
Dr Pepper-Snapple has a partial ownership deal with Big Red, which includes the right to bottle and distribute Big Red in the DFW area.
Calls to Dr Pepper-Snapple and Dublin Bottling Works about this issue were referred to Austin-based Big Red.
